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KENtaGKY PeLlTlGIANS. 



SKKTCH ES 



Ijepiesenltttive Coiii-Craclceis 



OTHER MISCELLANY. 



JOHN J. McAFEE. 



'O wad sorrie power tt^e giftie 'gie us 
To see oursel's as ithiers see us " 



Pre=;<; of 

The Coi'RiER-JorRNAi. Jum Printing Companv, Lonsvii.LE. Kv. 

iSS6. 



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Entered according to Act of Congress, in thk year i£S6, bv 

JOMNJ. McAfee, 

IN the OKKICE OK THE 1 ,11; r( A I; IAN \l \V \ sHINGTON. 



DEDICATION. 



This Book IS dedicated to the Honorable gentlemen 

whose names grace its pages, 

as a 

token of my honest admiration and esteem. 

Its merit lies in the fact of its sincerity and fidelity to truth. 

As such a memento it is 

offered to them Dy the hand of Frienaship. 

JOHN J. McAFEE. 

Louisville, Ky. 



Preface 



This work consists of biographical notes of Kentucky politicians, 
sketches of representative Corn-Crackers, and miscellany ; reminis- 
cences of the past forty years, army experiences, glimi)ses of South- 
ern life; a reliable account of how the great Cavalrvman, General 
John H. Morgan, was killed; a eulogy on General U. S. Grant; bits 
of [)hilosophy, and distinctively a compilation of historical facts in the 
lives of the leading young men of our State who have retlected credit 
on Kentucky by their independence, their courage, and their genius. 
It also contains the history of their ancestry — tells who they were, their 
I)laces of nativity, their Alma Mater, and a list of the public offices 
they have held. 

As a book of accurate reference, and the means by which one can 
easily acquaint himself with the experiences of those lofty spirits who 
opened up Kentucky while yet a wilderness, the home of the savage 
and the wolf, 1 bespeak an indulgent recognition of whatever merit 
it may possess. 

The Al'thor. 



GeNTENTS. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 

Hon. Robert T. Albritton 7 

General David Rice Atchison 10 

>(Mon. J. C. S. Blackburn 17 

^Hon, W. O. Bradley 20 

/Hon. W. C. P. Breckinridge 25 

Judge Eli H. Brown 29 

Colonel John Mason Brown 32 

Hon. Joshua F. Bullitt, Jr 36 

Hon. Robert A. Burton 41 

Hon. John G. Carlisle .... 44 

Hon. Asher Graham Caruth 48 

George M. Davie, Esq 52 

Hon. Henry C. Dixon 57 

General Basil W. Duke * 61 

Judge Fontaine T. Fox 65 

General Parker W. Hardin 68 

Hon. Thomas F. Hargis 73 

Hon. Thomas H. Hays 77 

Hon. John K. Hendrick 81 

General Fayette Hewitt 85 

Hon. James R. Hindman 89 

Judge Wm. B. Hoke 92 

Hon. William L. Jackson, Jr 95 

Hon. Richard A. Jones 98 

Hon. Lafayette Joseph lOl 

Hon. J. D. Kehoe 105 

\.--Judge William Lindsay 109 

Hon. Emmet G. Logan 113 

Jr" Hon. James B. McCreary 118 

Hon. Thomas E. Moss 121 

Hon. W. C. Owens 124 

Judge M. H. Owsley 128 

Hon. P. Booker Reed 131 

Hon. John S. Rhea 135 

Hon. Henry Hamilton Skiles 138 

Hon. James W. Tate I46 

Hon. William Preston Taull:iee 149 

Judge Reginald Heber Thompson 153 

The Thompson Brothers 156 

Colonel Sterling B. Toney 160 

Hon. Henry Watterson 164 

Hon. Albert S. Willis 168 

Hon. Leander Colib Woolfolk 172 

Colonel Bennett H. Young 176 



CONTENTS. 



MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 



A View of Louisville as a City and a Home 183 

A Eulogium on General John Adair 185 

A Humorous Proposition to act as Umpire . . . 188 

A Long Time in Saddle . . : . 191 

Christmas Times of Long Ago 197 

February 22d . .... 202 

General U. S. Grant 2c6 

Creneral John H. Morgan 210 

How to Better One's Self 218 

Kindness .... 221 

Notable Characters . . 224 

Our Dead — Preserve their Memories 230 

Our Happiest Days 232 

Our Sacred Past 234 

Remarks on the Death of Hon. James A. McCampbell 241 

The Blue and the Gray 243 

The Future 246 

The Ingratitude of the Masses 249 

The Thirst for Ofhce 251 

Thoughts about Boys 254 

Truth — a Lost Art . 257 



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HON. ROBERT T. ALBRITTON. 

The noblest aspiration of the human lieart is, or ought to be, the 
desire to be and to do right, and to deserve the encomiums of our fel- 
lowmen. Every one who Hves up to this high ideal, according to his 
best ability, has triumphed over the lesser ills of life, which, great 
minds ignore. If from such a man the careless world should with- 
hold the praise he seeks, and to which per sc he is entitled, it is a wrong, 
whose ])erpetration may never be offset by any amount of good in 
another direction. If, on the contrary, he should receive the meed of 
praise which his upright and manly course merits, his happiness, his 
pride, and his ambition being assured, his emulation to rise to a still 
nobler plane of well-doing is forever awake. Such a man, born to the 
luck of appreciation among his fellowmen, is the gentleman whose biog- 
raphy engrosses my mind and pen to-day — Robert T. Albritton. His 
father, John Albritton, Esq., was a gentlemen of great prol)ity and 
excellence, whose ancestors were among the first settlers of North 
Carolina, but uniting his life with that of Miss Conway, of Virginia, 
one of the brightest and prettiest belles of her day and time, the two 

(7) 



8 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACRERS. 

young people, at an early period in the history of Kentucky, came to 
this State and settled down with the full intention of "growing up 
with the country. " Among the lady's male ancestors on the Conway side 
of the house are several who have distinguished themselves for bravery 
and intelligence, and whose names stand high in the communities in 
which they lived. Among them was Miles W. Conway, who was a 
member of the convention of 1792, which met in Danville to form the 
first constitution of Kentucky. Another, Preacher Conway, is men- 
tioned in the State Annals as having said in Boston that " President 
Lincoln would like to have God on his side, but he must have Ken- 
tucky." Still another belonged to Captain James Harrod's company, 
which, in 1780, kept watch over the Falls, in what is now Jefferson and 
Shelby counties. 

Hon. Robert Albritton was born in the county of Graves on the 
nth day of April, 1844. He was educated in the schools of the 
county of his nativity, where his scholastic course was as thorough, if 
not more so, than those attained by other young men Avhose parents 
could not consider them "finished" and ready for the battle of life 
unless they matriculated at " Princeton "or " William and Mary," or 
some other equally well-known college or university. 

Now, it is a fact that Graves county was formed in 1823 out of a 
part of Hickman county. It was named in honor of Major Benjamin 
Graves, who was an amiable, shrewd, and intelligent man. He resided 
in Fayette county, following the peaceful pursuit of agriculture, find- 
ing his purest enjoyment in studying nature in her varying moods, and 
learning from her how to fill his barns and glean rich harvests of 
golden grain ; but, for all that, he several times represented Fayette 
county in the Legislature of his State. When the United States declared 
war against Great Britain, in the year 181 2, Benjamin Graves was 
among the first to volunteer his services in defense of his country's 
rights. He received the appointment of major in Colonel Lewis' reg- 
iment, and a more gallant officer, a more active and vigilant soldier 
never led a charge or fought for freedom. He was killed in the memo- 
rable battle of Raisin, and his life-blood ebbed away and mingled in its 
flow with the bluest blood in the States. 

When the tocsin of war was sounded twenty-five years ago, the 
record stands that A. R. Boone (being a member of the General Assem- 
bly) was expelled from the House of Representatives on December 21, 
1861, "because directly or indirectly connected with giving aid and 
comfort to the Confederate army and repudiating and acting against 
the Government of the United States and the Commonwealth of Ken- 
tucky." 



HON. ROBERT T. ALBRITTON. 9 

From which facts it will be seen that Graves county has her heroes, 
whose chivalry stands second best to none in the world ; and every Ken- 
tuckian who fought for the "Lost Cause," in memory of the gallant 
daring and hard fighting, the endurance and the privations involved in 
that struggle, should "take off his hat" to the historic name of 
" Boone," made doubly dear to him by this incident. 

He was not alone in his sympathy with the Southern movement. 

Robert T. Albritton was certainly in harmony Avith him, for he was 
among the first of the young and impulsive patriots who espoused the 
"cause" and rallied to the battle-cry of "Dixie." He was made 
captain of Company " H," of the Eighth regiment of Kentucky 
infantry, serving through the entire war with that courage and efficiency 
common to the soldiers of Kentucky, it matters not in what armies 
they fight. The people of the South keep sacred the remembrance of 
the service of Kentucky soldiers in the days of old, and this young 
and chivalrous officer "acted well his part." No matter how fierce 
and desperate the battles in which his regiment was engaged, young 
Albritton came out of them with " flying colors." One dav, however, 
a cloud drifted across his "lucky star," and he was taken prisoner. 
For seven months he languished at Cam}:) Morton. It is only among 
those who endured the martyrdom of prison life for the cause of lib- 
erty, national independence, and States' rights that a comprehensive 
view of such suffering can be obtained. 

At the close of the war. Captain Albritton returned to his home, 
rejoiced to find his old-time friends and associates had lost none of 
their good feeling for him on account of the internecine struggle. * 
Since then he has taken an active ])art in politics. He has been 
twice elected sheriff of his county. He was twice chosen chairman 
of the congressional committee of his district, and in August, 1885, he 
was elected State Senator from the district composed of the counties 
of Graves, Fulton, and Hickman. He is considered one of the 
strongest and soundest solons of the General Assembly. He is a 
man- of great dignity of character; he commands respect, and yet 
there is nothing austere about him. He is genial, companionable, 
and courageous as a lion. 

In 1877, he married the charming daughter of Irvin Anderson, 
Esc}. He was well known to the representative men of the State in 
ante-bellum days as the highest and noblest type of a Kentucky gen- 
tleman. Greater praise than this no man need aspire to gain. 

Mr. and Mrs. Albritton have quite an interesting family of cnil- 
dren, who bid fair to do honor to their excellent parents in moral 
worth and intellectual brilliance. 



&^ft. 




GENERAL DAVID RICE ATCHISON. 



Full a century and a half ago there was born in the shadows of 
the hills of Hanover county, Va., a child destined to sway his fellow- 
beings with his convincing eloquence and the powerful influence of his 
shining example, as it seldom falls to the lot of one mortal to assert 
himself above others unless backed by the marvelous strength of noble 
birthright, of trained armies, or the significance afforded by countless 
thousands of dollars. None of these aids were his. His parents were 
poor, obscure, and unobtrusive, but in this little child of theirs glowed 
the spark of genius. Nothing afforded him enjoyment equal to that 
derived from the sweet stories of the Gospel. He would rise early on 
Sunday morning, put a ])icce of clap-bread (a species of oatmeal-cake 
rolled thin and baked hard) in the bosom of his hunting-shirt, and 
travel thirteen miles on foot to hear President Davison preach. The 
minister, noticing a little ragged boy sitting near the door so regular in 
his attendance, detained him. On examination, he found that he was 
a jMOus boy, with fine tastes. He jnit him under his supervision, and 
gave him what in those days was esteemed a first-rate education. He 

(lo) 



GENERAL DAVID RICE ATCHISON. II 

was converted under the preaching of President Edwards, and studied 
theology under Rev. John Todd. He graduated at Princeton Col- 
lege, New Jersey. His name was David Rice, but, in the famihar 
parlance of those who loved and revered him, in later days he was 
known only by the title of " Father Rice." In the struggle for National 
Independence, he took a warm and zealous part, and esteemed it com- 
mensurate with the dignity of his clerical profession to address the 
people at county meetings and recite their grievances, while he urged 
measures for their suppression. In the year 1783 he came to Ken- 
tucky. He was then fifty years old, and was the third Presbyterian 
minister who crossed the mountains. He identified his fortunes with 
those of the brave spirits who had, in the face of long odds, established 
an infant colony amid the trackless wilds of a new country, dark with 
unguessed dangers. His influence was everywhere felt. He came 
among the hardy pioneers like a sweet south wind, infusing peace into 
their souls and good will toward their fellowmen. He gathered the 
Presbyterians into regular congregations at Danville, at Shawnee Run 
Church, near the spot where Shakertown now stands, and at McAfee 
Station. Previous to his arrival in Kentucky, marriages were all sol- 
emnized by magistrates, but subsequent to that event the people made 
it a point to procure the services of clergymen. At McAfee's Station, 
on the 3d of June, 1784, he united two glad hearts in the bonds of love 
and unity, and on the next day, the 4th instant, preached the funeral ser- 
mon of Mrs. James McCown, whose maiden name was McAfee, the 
first sermon ever preached on the banks of Salt river. 

David Rice was not ornate in his delivery. As a theologian, he 
was plain, practical, and earnest. His judgment was sound, his dispo- 
sition conservative, and his deportment exemplary. He spent much of 
his time in prayer. When in the pulpit, his manner was most solemn 
and impressive. His intercourse with society was dignified and grave, 
but never austere. He was one of the patriarchs of Presbyterianism 
in Kentucky. Besides his active duties as a minister, and the organi- 
zation of many churches, he was always zealous in advancing the cause 
of education. He was the first teacher in the Transylvania Seminary, 
and was also for several years the Chairman of its Board of Trustees. 

The public esteemed him with immeasurable regard, and, as evidence 
of the hold he had upon the affection of the people, of high and low 
degree, he was elected a member of the convention which met in 
Danville in 1 792 to frame a State Constitution. He exerted his influence 
on that memorable occasion, but without success, for the inserting of 
an article jsroviding for the gradual extinction of slavery in Kentucky. 
He was a great man — a good man. He tried to do right under all cir- 



12 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

cumstances, to be frank and fair with his fellowmen, and he gathered 
his reward in their universal homage. In personnel he was blender, 
tall, and active, possessed of great vigor and alertness, and in his old 
age he looked like a picture of Time smiling serenely beneath the 
snow-crown of many winters. He died in Green county on the iSth 
of June, ]8i6, in the eighty-third year of his age. His last words 
were. "Oh! when shall I be free from sin and sorrow ?" 

To perpetuate his name, many of the old-time people of a century 
ago adopted the name of " Rice" as a family Christian name. It was 
so with the McAfees, the Atchisons, the Welches, and many others. 
Indeed, the name of David Rice will never die while the echoes live 
among the Cumberland mountains that fortify the southern borders of 
Kentucky. Among his near lineal descendants are the children of 
John Welch, of Jessamine county, who married Miss Bettie Rice. 
They have several distinguished children — Rev. Thomas Rice Welch, 
now Consul-General to Canada; Judge William Rice Welch, of Illi- 
nois, and Doctor John. C. Welch, a distinguished surgeon, now resi- 
dent in Nicholasville, Ky. Genius never dies ; she but takes on new 
colors and constantly renews her youth at the fountain of immortal 
fame ; but on none of those who have been honored by wearing the 
title of this great man, David Rice, has the sign-manual descended as 
visibly as it did upon the brow of David Rice Atchison, the subject of 
this sketch, and the most prominent man among those who stood like 
giants amid the political battles of the past, and who survived the 
splendor of an eminently successful political life, as a superb oak might 
daringly rear its emerald crest to the blue dome, though civilization 
had felled a forest around it. He stood a link between the past and 
present, until the other day he fell as the monarch of the wood might 
fall — conquered by age alone. 

David Rice Atchison was born in Fayette county, Ky., south-east 
of Lexington, August ii, 1S07. His father, William Atchison, Esq., 
was a gentleman of great wealth, a profound thinker, and almost a 
zealot in his unbounded religious enthusiasm as a Presbyterian. His 
mother was Miss Catherine Allen, whose ancestral line might be traced 
back amid the pine forests of tlie grand old State of North Carolina. 
From his early years it was impressed upon the mind of young Atchi- 
son that his parents desired that he should become a Presbyterian min- 
ister. The fact of his bearing so great a name as "David Rice" 
would, with many lads, have been the best stimulus to excite religious 
enthusiasm, and so bias the bent of his inclination for a life-pursuit; 
but it had no influence over this brilliant young scion of a splendid 
race other than to erase from his character all inclinations toward 



GENERAL DAVID RICE AICHISON. I3 

wildness, and to early impress him with the conviction that, if not a 
minister of tb.e Gospel, he must be something great to repay his 
parents for the keen disappointment he inflicted by a choice of career 
varying from their fervent individual desire. 

He was educated at Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky. 
While there he formed the accpiaintance of another young Kentuck- 
ian who became his classmate and his life-long friend, and whom he 
met years afterward in the United States Senate — the one represent- 
ing the State of Mississippi, the other Missouri. This was Jefferson 
Davis. Neither war nor its vicissitudes ever had the power to sever 
a friendship begun in the springtime of their lives. 

At the age of twenty-two, David Rice Atchison removed to 
Liberty, Clay county, Mo., and began the practice of law. Success 
was not slow to welcome him. From 1831 to 1S38 he served with 
distinction in the State Legislature. After this, when but thirty-three 
years old, he was appointed Judge of the Circuit Court. In the same 
year he was appointed by Governor Reynolds.a Senator of the United 
States, to fill the unexpired term of Dr. L. F. Linn, made vacant 
by the death of that worthy gentleman. For fourteen years — from 
1841 to 1855— he served in the Senate of the LInited States. 

No man, among all the luminaries gathered at the capital, could 
outrival him, whether as prominent factor or conspicuous actor. 
At the time of the Kansas and Nebraska troubles, David Rice Atch- 
ison was the leader and chief adviser of the pro-slavery party. He 
received the credit of framing the bill repealing the Missouri Compro- 
mise. He was superbly educated, and allied to his natural genius, 
his knowledge of law, and his fine analytical mind and parliamentary 
finish, his magnificent stature and elegant manners rendered him a 
central figure of attraction even among the Titans of those days — 
Clay, Webster and Calhoun, Seward, Sumner and Hale, Douglas, 
Benton and Davis, and scores of others scarcely less able or brilliant. 
He was frequently chairman of important committees, and wherever 
he appeared commanded respect and won admiration. 

When but thirty-eight years of age he was President pro tempore of 
the Senate of the United States. At forty-six, by the death of Wm. 
R. Iving, Vice-President of the United States, he became, being Pres- 
ident of the United States Senate, Acting Vice-President of the 
United States. It was while holding the latter position, in 1849, that 
the event occurred which made him President of the LTnited States 
for one day. The term of President Polk expired with the 3d day of 
March, 1849, and the 4th of March in that year falling upon Sun- 
day, Piesident-elect Taylor was not willing to take the oath of ofifice 



14 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

upon that day. The latter's uiauguration did not, therefore, take 
place until noon on Monday, March 5, 1849. David Rice Atchison, 
being then the presiding officer of the Senate, and having the natural 
succession to the presidency, if there was no president or vice-pres- 
ident at the time, was practically the President during Sunday, 
the 4th. 

.Many important measures came up in the fourteen years he was in 
office. Te.xas and California were admitted into the Union; the Wil- 
mot Proviso; the compromise measures of 1850; the Kansas em- 
broglio, and the permanent cjuestions of finance, banks, currency, and 
revenue, all of which are forever unsettled matters for national con- 
troversy, whose adjustment involves all the wisdom and patriotism 
that can be brought to bear upon them. No matter what the subject 
for national consideration, while he had a voice in public affairs, 
David Rice Atchison was true to his convictions and faithful to his 
party, to his State, and to his friends. It is generally conceded that 
he was the most popular senator of his day and time among his com- 
peers, whether of his own or the opposing party. He was a man of 
such magnificent culture, of such generous impulses, so brilliant, so 
moral, so manly and upright, that men crowned him with not only 
their admiration but their affections. Yet amid all the brilliance of 
his prominent public life he found time to love God and worship Him. 
He was a firm believer in the Bible, and often asserted that he found 
it impossible to be otherwise, although at one time he had tried to 
doubt it. And so it was that the seeds of "peace on earth, good 
will to men," sown by David Rice, in the jjioneer days, in the hearts 
of his fellow-statesmen, brought in a golden harvest after many years. 
The world had offered this young man, David Rice Atchison, the 
allurements of earth : it had endeavored to beguile his conscience with 
sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, but all to no purpose; the holy 
lessons learned at his mother's knee were more potent than the soph- 
istries of the world, and his individual needs were best satisfied by 
the adaptability of the (ios])el to the requirements of his contem])lative 
mind — recpiirements which led him along the same i)ath that Shakes- 
peare, Milton, Bacon, Webster. Clay, and others had passed, through 
the shadows of doubt to the effulgent goal of conviction. 

When the late civil war began, David Rice Atchison, who was in 
warm sympathy with the South, helped to organize the Confederate 
forces in his vicinity, and was in several engagements, in which he 
bore himself with courtly courage. His rank was that of a general, 
but at the time of his enlistment his health was frail, and to his deep 
regret he was forced to send in his resignation. 



GENERAL DAVID RICE ATCHISON. 



^5 



Hoping to be able, through perfect quiet and rest from his public 
labors, to recuperate his health, General Atchison retired to his farm 
near Gower, in Clinton county, Mo., living in private, calm and un- 
disturbed, but his hope was vain. He never again entered the 
arena of public life. He was seventy-nine when he died, beloved 
and mourned by a large concourse of friends and relations. In pres- 
ence he was over six feet high, splendidly built, a man every inch of 
him. He has passed through the Valley of the Shadow, but the rep- 
utation he has left with the nation is a priceless heritage which will 
continue to halo the past with its golden splendor like the undying 
glory of a never-setting sun. 

Among his nearest relatives left in this State, after he moved to 
Missouri, born in the same county, was the Hon. Samuel Ayers Atch- 
ison, the eminent lawyer, who died in Louisville in 1869. This latter 
gentleman was twice wedded. His first wife, an elegant lady, was 
the sister of Governor James T. Morehead. Among her children was 
the brilliant young lawyer, Samuel Atchison, who died in this city in 
18S0, lamented b'y his friends, and mourned b}' those who knew him 
best, as one whose like would not soon be looked upon again. He 
had a magnificent mind, and stepped to the front rank at the chancery 
bar as if he had an imperial tilU 

Mr. Atchison's second wile 
was Miss Eliza Love, a lady 
of great refinement and intel- 
ligence, who is still living at 
the age of eighty years in full 
possession of her faculties. 
Of this marriage was born. 




./WW 
P. Atchison, Escp, a l-'^^^'y'^rl \m#\w 

of that city, whose capacity \^ ^M^ 
and talents justify the highest 
hopes of eminence in his pro- 
fession. After graduating at 
a Kentucky college in rSyo, 
he studied law, and matricu- 
lated in the law department 
of the University of Louis- benjamin f. Atchison, esq. 

ville, graduating therefrom in 1873. The directness of his course, 
his fine common sense, his prudent habits, and excellent judgment 
have heretofore attracted the attention of the people more than that 



1 6 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

undoubted genius with which his intimate associates know that he is 
gifted. His wit is dehcate and pohshed, his manner genial and 
dehghtful, his observation accurate and keen. His skill in cross- 
examination, rare in one so young, attests his acquaintance with 
the motives and character of men. While not appearing to the world 
a book-worm, his learning is solid and extensive, and his memory 
allows no treasure he has toiled for to escape. All these qualities are 
based upon the strong foundation of integrity and sincerity. He is 
at his best when confronted by unexpected difficulties in the trial of 
his causes; and he has that presence of mind in such dangers which 
is the surest test of self-rreliance and the consciousness of powers which 
he always holds well in hand. He is one of those modest, unassuming 
men with lofty and fixed purposes in life, who do not culminate prema- 
turely, but whose mental stature keeps steady pace with his years, and 
who will never disappoint the highest expectations of those who under- 
stand his admirable character, and those expectations are very high. 

This gentleman several years ago married Miss Minnie Warren, 
daughter of L. L. Warren, the devout Presbyterian, whose worth as 
a man was coequal with that of David Rice, who lived for his people 
and his God. Warren Memorial Church, in this city, is a monument 
to his religious convictions and munificent philanthropy, which will 
survive the sweep of many a storm and the gathering dust of ages. 

John Atchison, Esq., of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Dr. Thos. 
A. Atchison, of Nashville, Tennessee, a distinguished surgeon, who 
reached the pinnacle of his profession and retired to the walks of 
private life, possessed alike of great wealth and influence, are the only 
near relatives in this section, besides Benjamin F. Atchison, Esq , 
of the great David Rice Atchison, whose fame as a jurist, soldier, 
scholar, statesman, citizen, lifts a column of glory to the skies, to 
whose splendor many men may turn their eyes, yet scarcely see another 
in the nineteenth century equaled by accumulated chronicles of deeds 
as noble, as faithful, as imperishable. General Atchison lived and 
died a bachelor. 




HON. J. C. S. BLACKBURN, 



Kentucky's Senator in Congress, Hon. J. C. S. Blackburn, is a 
man of remarkable eloquence, having at his command a vocabulary of 
astonishing dimensions, which he puts to fluent use. His voice is full, 
rich, resonant, and, when he is upon the hustings advocating the rights 
of the great national and now victorious Democratic party, it rings like 
a silver clarion, easily filling any auditorium to its boundaries with its 
harmonious utterances. He was born in the county of Woodford in 
the year 1S38. He is the youngest son of a large family of children^ 
the eldest of which is ex-Governor Luke P. Blackburn, who is an old 
and highly-respected citizen of Louisville, Ky., ripe in years and full 
of honors. Judge Joseph H. Lewis, of the present Court of Appeals 
in Kentucky, is a brother-in-law. Ex-Mayor Morris, of Chicago, was 
another. The most estimable wife of the last-named gentleman sur- 
vived him many years, and died in this city in 18S4. She was an in- 
veterate Southerner — Southern in heart and in soul, and during the 
war, of all the ladies in Chicago she was the most active and untiring 
in her kind and tender ministrations to the Southern prisoners at Fort 
Douglas. Her name, through the eloquent praise of those whose in- 
carceration she brightened with the light of her Christian charities, in 

(17) 



l8 HON. J. C. S. BLACKBURN. 

many households of the Southland, became like a strain of familiar 
music. If it be true that God loves a cheerful giver, her high and 
noble soul has long ere this received the merited reward of "Well 
done, good and faithful servant." She possessed all the attributes of 
the pioneer matrons, whose heroic deeds aided much in opening up 
the country and establishing civilization as a permanence this side of 
the Alleghanies. They could not be commended too highly. They 
were true to every lofty impulse which graces the name of woman, 
and, with their firm and practical views of life, they made the rough, 
crude homes of the early settlers dear and comfortable to them as 
though beautified by every art and exhibition of luxurious designs that 
belong to modern times. Their guerdon lies in the knowledge, which 
is our herison, that civiUzation has spread mile on mile into the far 
West, spanning rivers and tunneling mountains : like electricity, forcing 
its way wherever it listeth, until in the waste places the lily blends its 
fragrance with the erubescent rose; and where trackless wilds once 
batified the piercing rays of the sun, the jarring tumult of presses that 
never pause and the rush and whirl of busy cities are now heard; and 
the hamlets, with their varied sounds of honest labor, tell that the 
march of progression has not slackened its pace. All these changes 
are monuments reared to the memory of tne good and true, who lived 
and struggled and died, leaving the rich heritage to us that we now, 
as a nation, enjoy. And yet how few pause in this busy life to pay 
homage to those whose meritorious deeds won the respect of the world, 
which goes ringing down the centuries. Mrs. Morris was a typical 
daughter of those famous American women who have helped to make the 
imperishable history of the country. Yet, with them to-day, wrapt in 
a gloom profound, we know that she is lowly lying, deaf alike to the 
homage of the world or the friends who loved her, and that the only 
consolation to the trusting soul is the thought that God gaveth and it 
is He who taketh away. The women of the Blackburn family are 
celebrated for their courage and their noble charities. They have 
never been daunted by either war or epidemic in the intelligent dis- 
pensing of alms to those who merit the mercy of the noble-hearted. 
Wealth to them is meaningless if hoarded up for sordid purposes. 

Senator Blackburn graduated at Centre College, Danville, Ky , 
and in the law at Lexington, Ky. He is. strictly speaking, of indig- 
enous growth, not only in point of birth and education, but also by 
marriage and in manner. His wife, an exceedingly handsome, ele- 
gant, and accomplished lady, is the daughter of the late Kentucky 
centenarian. Doctor Christopher Columbus Graham, who, at the time 
of his death, was probably the best known man in the State. During 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. I 9 

his life he was universally honored, and his death brought general 
gloom to the country in which he lived, and throughout whose borders 
he was so well and favorably known. Senator Blackburn was in the 
Southern army, and after the close of the war, in 1865, he swung his 
shingle out to the people of Arkansas as a practicing attorney at law 
with Judge R. H. Thompson, now of this city, as his partner. All 
the- time pining for his native State, he returned to Woodford county 
in 1867 ; and in 1871, after a stormy canvass, he was elected to the Leg- 
islature, and, upon its organization, was chosen Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Railroads. He was re-elected in 1873, ^^^cl was made Chair- 
man of the Committee upon the Judiciary. In 1874, he was elected 
to the Congress of the United States, and continually succeeded him- 
self until elected by the Legislature of i883-'84 to the L^nited States 
Senate, taking his seat March 4, 1885. Mr. Blackburn has made for 
himself a reputation as a bold and logical debater that is national, 
having measured lances with General Butler, President Garfield, and 
other Republican luminaries while a member of Congress, and each time 
having covered himself with glory at the intellectual jousts ; and this, too, 
at a time when the country at large was overwhelmingl}- Republican. 
In those dark days, when the future fate of the Democratic party 
hung trembling in the balance of existence, the South and West stood 
greatly in need of the invaluable services of just such a debater as 
Blackburn, and never in a single instance has he proved recreant to a 
nation's trust in his courage, his intelligence, or his fidelity. The 
Republican party had grown arrogant and aggressive, and it was emi- 
nently necessary that they should be met in national councils with such 
valor and logic as Blackburn — and Blackburn alone — possessed. To 
say that he has covered himself with glory and nobly served his con- 
stituents is to do him a simple justice. 

In physique he is very attractive, being a man of mark among a 
multitude. He is five feet eleven inches in height. His movements 
are quick, but full of a subtle grace and elasticity. His hair is a rich 
brown, his eyes are of a glinting blue m color, and wearing usually 
an expression which indicates great firmness of opinion and steadfast- 
ness of purpose in whatever cause he espouses. Honest principle, 
incorruptible and imperishable, is the groundwork of his character. 
His friends love him and bestow upon him a steadfast devotion that is 
admirable, and Kentuckians generally hold him in high esteem, and 
expect much of him in his new field of service to the nation. 



•S,g>?) 



(504. 




HON. WILLIAM O'CONNELL BRADLEY. 



Madison was a county of Virginia, one of nine established by tht 
General Assembly of that State out of Kentucky county, afterward 
called Kentucky district, before the separation of Kentucky, and her 
admission into the Union June r, 1792. It was formed (the seventh 
in order) out of a part of Lincoln county, and it was named in honor 
of James Madison, afterward President of the United States. 

Mr. ALidison was born March 5, 1751, in a town on the south side 
of the Rai)pahannock, in Virginia, called Port Royal. '1 he h(;me of 
his parents, however, was in Orange county, where he always resided. 
Mr. Madison received the very best education the country afforded, 
having graduated at Princeton College during the presidency of the 
celebrated Dr. Witherspoon. When he left college he studied law ; 
not, however, with the view of adopting it as a profession. In 1776 
he was elected to the Legislature of Virginia. At the succeeding 
county election he was not returned, but when the Legislature assem- 
bled he was appointed a member of the Council of State, which place 
he held until he was elected to Congress in 1779. While a member of 

(20) 



HON WILLIAM O CONNELL BRADLEY. 21 

the Council of State he formed an intimate friendship with Patrick 
Henry and Thomas Jefferson, which endured as long as life lasted. 
He continued in Congress during the years 1780, 1781, 1782, and 
1783, being a leading, active, and influential member of that body, and 
in all its deliberations filling a prominent part. In the years 1784, 
1785, and 1786, he was elected a delegate to the State Legislature. 
In 1786 he was a member of the convention at Annapolis, which 
assembled preliminary to the convention at Philadelphia, which formed 
the Federal Constitution. He was a member of that convention also, 
and assisted in framing the present Constitution of the United States. 
He continued a member of the old Congress by reappointment until 
its expiration in 1786. On the adoption of the Constitution, he was 
elected to Congress from his district, and continued a member from 
1 789 till 1797. He was the author of the celebrated resolution against 
the alien and sedition laws passed by the Virginia Legislature in 1798. 
When Mr. Jefferson was elected President, he appointed Mr. Madison 
Secretary of State, in which office he continued during the eight years 
of Jefferson's administration. In 1809, on the retirement of Mr. Jef- 
ferson, he was elected President, and administered the government 
during a period of eight years. At about sixty years of age he retired 
from public life, and ever afterward resided on his estate in Virginia, 
with the exception of about two months while at Richmond as a mem- 
ber of the convention in 1829, which sat there to remodel the Consti- 
tution of the State. His farm, his books, his friends, and his corre- 
spondence were the sources of his enjoyment and occupation during 
the twenty years of his retirement. On the 28th of June, 1836, he 
died, as serene, philosophical, and calm in the last moments of his 
existence as he had been in all the trying occasions of his life. When 
they received intelligence of his death, the Congress of the United 
States adopted a resolution appointing a public oration to commemorate 
his life, and Hon. John Q. Adams was selected to deliver it. 

In honor of President Madison then, this county in Kentucky was 
named, and it does honor to his memory. It is the largest of the blue- 
grass counties. Its surface is diversified ; the western is broken and 
quite hilly, the central part is generally undulating, the eastern portion 
lies well, but it is not so rich and productive as other portions of it. 

Madison county felicitates herself in many respects beyond the 
prosperity of her citizens, the beauty of her scenery, and her illustrious 
history. She is rich in curiosities and objects of interest, calculated 
to inspire the tourist, the dreamer, and the student. She possesses the 
first of so many things, that to be well acquainted with Madison 
county argues a general comprehensive knowledge of the State. The 



22 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CK ACKERS. 



first road or trace, called ' ' Boone's trace, " was cut from the Long Island, 
on Holston river, not far from the place of treaty, to Boonesborough, 
on the Kentucky river. The first contest between the whites and 
Indians on Kentucky soil occurred on Satur iay morning, March 25, 
1775, in what is now Madison county, about fifteen miles south of the 
Kentucky river. The first fort was established here, the first ferry, 
the first marriage in Kentucky took place at Boonesborough. the first 
store in Kentucky, the first schools were also opened and started in 
this same locality, and many more such incidents and deeds and civil- 
ized accomplishments originated in Madison county. She has produced 
soldiers, statesmen, jurists, orators, and divines whose origin any land 
might be proud to claim ; but there is not one cause above another, and 
has never been, about which she has reason to feel a deeper glow of 
pride than the fact that Robert Mc- 
Afee Bradley was born (and reared 
within her borders) on March 27, 
1808, and died in Lancaster, August 
31, 1881. He was a great land law- 
yer — he had been schooled and 
trained in the experiences of land 
litigation, of which there seemed no 
end in Kentucky for many years. 
His practice was extensive and suc- 
cessful. He was eloquent, witty, 
and magnetic. He was fearless, 
and cool, and composed as an Ori- 
ental. He never sought and never 
desired to fill public office. His profession was his pride, his ambition, 
and his delight. Beyond it and his family ties, he took interest in the 
cause of temperance and the development of intelligence through the 
dissemination of knowledge in public schools. Popular education was 
his dream, and to the last it commanded his interest and his attention. 
His wife's maiden name was Miss Ellen Totten. She was born in 
181 5, in Garrard county, Ky. , and was the worthy and exemplary wife 
so gifted and good a man deserved to possess. She was a noted 
beauty and belle in her youth. They were blessed with five children, 
four daughters and one son. The daughters were all married happily, 
bearing respectively the names of Batchelor, Newell, Morrow, and 
Mayes. The .son, William O'Connell Bradley, also married Miss Mar- 
garet R. Duncan, of Garrard county. Robert McAfee Bradley's 
father and grandfather were both Revolutionary soldiers, wlio served 
their country with honor and distinction. He, himself, was as thor- 




ROBERT McAfee Bradley. 



HON. WILLIAM o'CONNELL BRADLEY. 23 

oughly known as a lawyer as any man in Central Kentucky. His 
ability was not only acknowledged, but his charities were great, and 
he had many admirers and friends in all classes of society. He was 
the author of a book which bears the humorous title of " Granny 
Short's Barbecue," which was published in this city by Messrs. Bradley 
& Gilbert. He was a singularly-eloquent man, and if the subjoined 
quotation bears me not out in my assertion, then do I admit I know 
not the quality of eloquence. Demosthenes, Cicero, Patrick Henry, 
Webster, Tom Marshall, and all or any of those great minds of the 
past or the present age, whose silver tongues have inspired the hearts 
of men to cherish, honor, and love truth, never surpassed the grandeur 
of thought, the felicity of expression, and the nobility of sentiment 
contained in the utterances of Mr. Bradley, when he felt that right was 
might, in his plea for justice at the hands of his fellowmen. It was 
in one of his great land suits ; forty witnesses had been summoned by 
the defense, and testified that a certain survey had been made but ten 
years, when the plaintiff in the case contended that it was made thirty 
years previous to the time asserted by the opjjosing parties in interest 
The evidence Mr. Bradley introduced were blocks cut from identified 
corner-trees on which the annulations showed since the marks had 
been made. Confronting the jury with one of these blocks in his out- 
stretched hand, with an air of inexpressible dignity and conscious 
power, he said : "I rely not upon the testimony of man, the frail 
creature of an hour. Influence, money, hope, or fear may corrupt 
him or warp his judgment. I offer the testimony of the Most High. 
Since these trees were marked by the surveyor's tomahawk, year by 
year, with His own immortal finger. He has drawn a line indicating the 
passing time. Tempest or sunshine, rain or storm, that invisible hand 
heeded not, as with unerring certainty it recorded the fleeting years amid 
the stillness of the forest. No money can change, no power warp this 
testimony. Not all the waters of the ocean can wipe it out. God placed 
it there, and there it must remain as long as those majestic trees lift their 
heads toward the clouds. Here are thirty lines drawn by the Divine 
hand. Which will you believe, the evidence of God or man ? " Was it a 
wonder the jury found for the plaintiff? What heart could remain cold, 
what mind be obdurate in the presence of such convincing eloquence? 
And with such a father could it be otherwise than that the son 
should develop into a magnificent man who commands the respect 
and admiration of the world, and the affection and confidence of the 
community in which he resides ? William O'Connell Bradley does this 
and more. But let his clear cut record on the tablets of fame speak 
for him, do him the justice, and win for him the praise my pen may not 



24 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

weave into a laurel wreath for his ambitious young head. He was 
born near Lancaster, in Garrard county, March i8, 1847. He enlisted 
in the Federal army at fourteen years of age; at seventeen, with the 
down of manhood scarce darkening on his lip, by a special act of the 
Legislature he was admitted to the practice of law, taking rank soon 
after before the Court of Appeals as a brilliant speaker and a profound 
lawyer. In politics he is a Republican. In 1870, he was elected 
county attorney of Garrard. In 1872, he was nominated for Congress, 
and after a brilliant canvass was defeated, his district being Democratic. 
In 1876, he was re-nominated, and again sustained defeat owing to a 
s milar cause, but this time by a reduced majority. In 1878, and again 
in 1882, he declined the nomination for Congress; and in 1879, de- 
clined a nomination for attorney-general of the State of Kentucky. 
The cause of so doing was ill-health. In 1S80, he was a delegate to 
the Chicago National Convention. It was in this convention the Hon. 
Roscoe Conkling, of New York, placed the name of that illustrious 
soldier and statesman, General U. S. Grant, in nomination for a third 
term to the Presidency of the United States, claiming "Appomattox" 
as the platform of the National Republican party. The young and 
gifted Kentuckian, William O. Bradley, was unanimously chosen by the 
delegates of that convention to second the nomination. He did so, 
thundering forth such a storm of eloquence that he attracted the atten- 
tion and won the admiration of that body, composed, as it was, of 
gifted men of national reputation. As a logician Mr. Bradley has 
scarcely a peer in his native State.. His oratory is ornate, his argu- 
mentative qualities finished and convincing, and his acumen at once 
polished and profound. He was a member of the National Republican 
Committee for Kentucky. In 1884, he was a delegate at large and 
chairman of the Kentucky delegation in the Chicago National Con- 
vention which nominated James G. Blaine, of Maine, for the presidency 
of the United States. In this convention Mr. Bradley made a ringing 
speech against the proposition from Massachusetts and Indiana to 
reduce the electoral strength of the South. 

Before he was eligible he received tlie complimentary vote of his 
party in the Legislature for United States Senator. In 1884, he was 
chosen by President Arthur to prosecute the Star-route thieves. The 
attorney-general of the United States refusing to allow a full and im- 
partial prosecution, Mr. Bradley promptly retired from the case. His 
sense of justice, his pure love of equity revolts at unfairness and he 
never gives it countenance. Mr. Bradley was the first politician in 
Kentucky who took active ground for national aid to education. This 
he did in his canvass for Congress in 1872. 




HON. W. C. P. BRECKINRIDGE. 



It is my honest belief t'aat greatness is hereditary, and that those 
who have through generations cuUivated aristocracy of muscle seldom 
leave to their i)Osterity those intellectual attributes that entitle them co 
an entrance ia the charmed circle swayed only by the aristocracy of 
mind. That is the true dividing line which, from time immemorial 
almost, has separated social classes. It may be that the origin of the 
difference began away back in the dim distance of the sacred past, 
when learning was not so generally disseminated as it is now; but, be 
this surmise based upon veritable facts o merely erroneous sugges- 
tions, the inalienable truth remains that we usually find our great nien 
and great women had great ancestors. I do not mean by this asser- 
tion to draw the bar sinister across the escutcheon of any living being 
in our republic, or any other country under the sun, for to do this 
would be to fly in the face of a grand array of brilliance and beautv, 
of genius and talent, as displayed among what we call "self-made 
people ; " but even among them it will usually be found that they take 
jjride in tracing back their divine gifts to this or that ancestor who had 
an aspiration to elevate themselves, not only in this world's goods, but 
intellectually. We do not expect, when we sit down under the vine 
•and fig-tree planted years ago, to gather thorns and thistles. And we 

(25) 



26 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

are not disapj^ointed. It may be that this inherent greatness does not 
display itself in every generation, Init it is there, and extreme situa- 
tions will invariably evolve it. The field that has lain fallow for a sea- 
son yields richer crops when they plow open its furrows again, and on 
the same natural principle suppressed greatness in one generation adds 
to the brilliance of the next. It is only in individual cases where the 
phoenix Genius arises from the ashes of her splendor without waiting 
for the torch-bearer of Fate to find the vital spark and give it air. 
But we all alike admit that only from acorns can the oaks — mighty 
monarchs of the forest — spring into life. The errant winds of chance 
may blow these acorns hither and yon, but wherever they take root 
they are oaks, and as such hold sway and yield their grateful shade to 
lesser things seeking shelter beneath them. 

From which dissertation — taken in connection with the honored 
name which illumines the preface of my sketch to-day — may be de- 
duced my conviction that Hon. William Cabell Preston Breckinridge, 
in whom concenters the greatness of more than one distinguished 
family, could not well avoid being what he is — "The silver tongued 
orator of the West." He is the present member in Congress from the 
celebrated '■ Ashland District," which has so long been famous in the 
annals of the country, rendered so by the illustrious men who preceded 
him in representing it in the National Councils. It would be futile to 
enumerate them or their brilliant speeches and acts in order to excite 
interest in the minds of a Kentucky public. Their names have passed 
into the history of the State, and belong to the nation's archives. We 
have no need to blush in comparing their love of country and their 
noble achievements in her honor, whether enacted upon the hustings 
or in the nation's forum, with the intellectual spirits that once gave 
glory and fame to Greece, and whose eloquence still seems to haunt 
the Parthenon at Athens, though the lips that framed the words have 
long since turned to dust. Kentuckians know full well that the clarion 
voice of W. C. P. Breckinridge M'ill gi\e forth no uncertain sound, 
and that when he speaks his utterances will be remembered. 

He was born on the 28th day of August, 1837, near Baltimore. Md., 
his father. Rev. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, being at that time pastor 
of the Second Presbyterian C'hurch of Baltimore. Having been pre- 
pared at Transylvania University, he entered the junior class at Cen- 
tre College, September, 1853, and graduated there April 26, 1855. 
He studied in the office of the celebrated Madison C. Johnson, of 
Lexington, Ky., and was graduated in the law department of the Uni- 
versity of Louisville, Ky., on February 27, 1857. Everywhere he 
was regarded as a young man of l)rilliant jiromise ; it had been said 



HON. W. C. F. BRECKINRIDGE. 27 

from his earliest years that he liad given signs and assurances of un- 
common mental endowments. And so it was that much was expected 
of him; nor has he yet disappointed those who love and admire him 
and watch with the deepest interest his growing greatness. During 
the war between the States, Colonel Breckinridge had his opinions, 
and he staunchly abided by them. He became captain of Company 
"I," Second Kentucky (Morgan's) Cavalry, on July 17, 1862, whicli po- 
sition he filled with great credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction 
of his superior officers, until he abandoned it to become major of 
Breckinridge's Battalion, September 17, 1862, and later on colonel of 
the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry, on December 17, 1S62. His record as 
a soldier is dear to the heart of every Confederate who struck a blow, 
like Marco Bozzaris, '' For God and his native land." The civil strug- 
gle brought to an end, he returned to Lexington, Ky., and jjracticed 
law with brilliant success until elected to the Forty-ninth Congress of 
the United States on November 4, 1884, where he continued to gather 
laurels, his genius and his ability giving him a rank second to none. 
He was re-elected to the Fiftieth Congress on the 2d of November, 1S86. 
Colonel Breckinridge has been twice married. His first wife was Miss 
Lucretia Clay, daughter of Hon. Thomas Clay, and granddaughter of 
Henry Clay. This lovely lady lived but a brief while subsequent to 
her marriage. His second wife was the daughter of Doctor John R. 
Desha, deceased, of Lexington, Ky., a physician of prominence and 
ability. Her name is poetical enough for her to have been born un- 
der the skies of the Orient, and musical as the inceptive song of a 
nightingale — "Issa." They have several charming children, among 
them a beautiful daughter, who is admiringly mentioned whenever she 
appears in Washington society. 

Colonel Breckinridge's mother was a lady of whom he was justly 
proud. She was Miss Sophronisba Preston, who was born at the Salt 
Works, then in Washington, now in Smythe county, A'^a. To say she 
belonged to so noble a family as the Virginia Prestons is like granting 
her a royal patent on all that was gracious and kind. His t'ather, the 
Rev. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, was born March 8, 1800, at 
Cabell's Dale, Fayette county, Ky., and died at Danville, Kv., De- 
cember 27, 1S71. He was the seventh child and fourth son of Hon. 
John Breckinridge and Mary Hopkins Cabell, and connected, through 
his grandmother, Letitia Preston Breckinridge, with the Prestons, of 
Virginia, Kentucky, and South Carolina, and with the ALarshalls, 
Browns, and other distinguished families of Kentucky. He was the 
most distinguished clergyman of his day, and wielded a potent influ- 
ence in both Church and State affairs. He was roval in birthright and 



28 



REPRESF.NI ATIVE CORN-CK ACKERS. 



finished in scholarship. Like Lord Byron, he had traveled wherever 
civilization had left its imprint upon the sands of time, and his dis- 
courses were fuller of poetry and eloquence than the romances of Sche- 
herezade. He took an active interest in everything around him, from 
the products of the field to the minerals of the earth. History glows 
with his acts. He was accounted the giant of the family, intellectually. 
His genius was certainly of the highest order. His education was 
profound. His will knew no bounds. He was an enthusiastic L'nion 
man in the late war, and brought his widespread influence to bear upon 
all who listened to his convincing arguments to uj)hold the Union 
"though the heavens fell." Wherever he aj)peared he was a power, 
and oftener the controlling spirit. 

The name of PJreckinridge, like those of Caesar, Cromwell, Napo- 
leon, is imperishable. It shines like a star on the scroll of American 
fame, and dates back to the Reformation. The ancestors of this sj)len- 
did clan of people took part in the memorable defense of Londonderry 
in the seventeenth century. They were, on the paternal side of the 
house, what was then called "Scotch-Irish"' — that is, they were Pres- 
byterians from the North of Ireland then, but originally from Scotland. 
After the restoration of Charles II. they were hotly persecuted in Ayre- 
shire, their original seat, and were driven thence into the highlands of 
Braedlabane, where they spent half a century. Thence they removed 
to Ireland, and thence early in the last century into Virginia. They 
were a persecuted remnant of tlie Scotch Covenanters, who suffered 
long and heroically in defense of liberty and reformed religion, and 
their courage, intelligence, and fidelity they left as birthrights to their 
descendants, than which they could not hold greater or nobler pos- 
sessions. 



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^^^^JSPhj I'l 




JUDGE ELI H. BROWN. 



The county of Meade was formed in 1823, and named in lionor of 
Captain James Meade, who fell in die battle of the river Raisin. And 
it was in this county that Eli H. Brown was born on the 13th of 
November, in the year of our Lord 1S41. He is the fifth son of John 
Mc. Brown, Esq., who was born in Nelson county, Ky. , in 1799, and 
his mother was Miss Minerva Murray, of Washington county, Ky., 
the daughter of Colonel John Murray, of that county. She was born 
in the year 1808. Their ancestry were among the early settlers of 
Virginia and Pennsylvania, distinguished for valor, intrepidity, and 
intellectual superiority. Eli Brown was educated at the academy of 
Hawesville, Hancock county, Ky. He studied law with George W. 
Williams, Esq., then a resident of that town, but now residing in 
Owensboro, Ky. He could not have been in better training, for Mr. 
Williams was regarded at that time as the ablest chancery lawyer in 
that section of the State. 

Mr. Brown entered upon the practice of his profession in good 
faith at Hawesville, Ky., in February, 1862, but he was soon elected 

(29) 



30 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

City Judge of Hawesville, which place he occupied from 1862 to 
1864. This term of office having exjMred, he was then elected county 
attorney, which position he held through the term of eight years, which 
"carried him over" to 1872. After a time he removed to Owensboro, 
K\'., and entered into a copartnership with his old preceptor, George 
AV. Williams, Esq. In the Greeley campaign ^Ir. Brown wasmade elector 
for the Second Congressional district. Samuel E. Smith, Esq., of 
Greenville, Ky., was the elector for the Republicans, and their joint 
discussions in the Greeley and Grant campaign excited much interest, 
and everywhere over the district attracted great crowds to listen to 
their flow of wit and eloquence. 

Samuel E. Smith was the gentleman who, in 1867, contested the 
seat of Kentucky's gifted and brilliant John Young Brown. When 
their claims were presented to Congress neither was allowed to take 
the seat, and the Second Congressional district was without repre- 
sentation that session, Mr. Brown's loyalty not being acceptable to a 
Republican Congress, notwithstanding his large majority of the vote 
of the district. 

Mr. Eli H. Brown also acted as Commonwealth's Attorney /ri? tern. 
under Judge Martin H. Cofer, deceased, during which time he gave 
universal satisfaction in the performance of his official duties. Mr. 
Brown has always endeavored to avoid politics. 

In October, 1878, he removed to Louisville, Ky., and entered 
upon the practice of law, forming a co-partnership with his relative, 
David M. Rodman, Esq. They make a strong and i)opular firm, and 
have always enjoyed a fine clientage. 

In February, 1870, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Nannie W. 
Dorsey, of Nelson county, Ky., a lady of wealth and culture. They 
have four children to cheer and adorn their home, full of brightness 
and beauty and promise. 

In his person Judge Brown forms the connecting link between three 
distinguished families born and reared in Kentucky — the Hustons, the 
Murrays, and the Aliens. They need no encomiums pronounced by 
me. Their names stand i)rominently upon the records of the State 
from the year 1799 down to the present day, as lawyers, politicians, 
and soldiers. No matter what the position, they reflected credit ujjon 
it and themselves. General Thomas Crittenden, ex-governor of Mis- 
souri; Governor Eli Murray, of Utah, and Judge John Allen Murray, 
of Breckinridge county, Ky., are among the younger members of 
these remarkable families, all congenital "Corn-crackers," born and 
reared in Kentucky and educated in her institutions of learning and 
research. And certainly they compare favorably with any specimens 



JUDGE ELI H. BROWN. 



31 



of the Anglo-Saxon race to be found in any country and with speci- 
mens of any other civilized and enUghtened people on the face of the 
globe. 

Judge Brown is a man of fine stature and commanding appear- 
ance. He has great conversational adaptability, and possesses many 
warm and admiring friends who take pride in his success in life, and 
out of true personal regard advance his interests whenever they can. 
When a ma i can command fidelity in his friends one may well repose 
faith in his intrinsic merits. 




®-t— 



-3- 




H-i 



COLONEL JOHN MASON BROWN. 



When in thoughtful mood I scan the pages of histories and biog- 
raphies, and search annals and records of Kentucky and Kentucky's 
great men, I feel like a bibliomaniac burrowing amid antiques, quite 
forgetful that the sun of to day is shining, and that the march of pro- 
gression continues from ocean to ocean, until suddenly the name of 
some one of our great departed brings to mind a similar name worn 
fairly and nobly by a descendant who has taken his place in the nirhe 
(jod meant for him to fill, and it shines like a golden link in the long 
chain of circumstances binding the present to the past ; and then 1 
realize the salient truth that while that blood courses in the veins of 
descendants, valor, integrity, and genius are the natural heritage of 
well-born Kentuckians. 

Especially is this true when I gather data from the name of 
"Brown." In every noble enterprise, in every struggle for the right, 
in peace and in war, from the first revolutionary war to the last civic 
struggle, these scions of a noble house have been leading men in the 
State, and some of them in the nation. Well may the heart beat faster 

(32) 



COLONEL JOHN MASON BROWN. 33 

with pardonable pride, and the flush of gratified feefing glow upon the 
cheek to read the family record. James Brown, Esq., was the first 
secretary of State ; John Brown, Esq. , was our first delegate to Congress. 
He was a representative to the Virginia Legislature from Kentucky, and 
was elected a delegate by that body and took his seat with the other 
representatives from Virginia. He was an eminent lawyer of Ken- 
tucky, possessed of talent, influence, and popularity. He made his 
mark as a man of spirit and genius, and contended for Kentucky's 
right to be independent from Virginia with a fervor and a determination 
which brought about controversy and animadversion, but eventually 
attained for Kentucky her independence and a market for the prod- 
ucts of her exuberant soil. He was the first United States Senator 
from Kentucky ; and three times he filled that place before the people, 
winning from President Madison, one of the profoundest statesmen 
and purest patriots this country has ever produced, an encomium 
which is the crown jewel in all the splendor of his fame. He said : 
" I was in intimate friendship with Mr. Brown when we were asso- 
ciated in public life, and I always regarded him, while steadily atten- 
tive to the interests of his constituents, duly imi^ressed with the 
importance of the Union and anxious for its prosperity." So fell, 
lilie a castle builded with cards a rude breath might destroy, the fool- 
ish fiction about Spanish intrigues. It was blown away like dust from 
a great and glorious name belonging to an honorable and noble-minded- 
gentleman, who had conferred the highest distinction on his State and 
country by a judicious display of ability and resolution and a staunch 
adherence to the rights of his constituents as free men and American 
citizens. Ben Gratz Brown was another member of this fine clan of 
people. He was half-brother to Colonel John Mason Brown. He 
was United States Senator from i86o-'6j from Missouri. He was also 
governor of Missouri from iS7o-'74, and in the electoral college, in 
session at Frankfort on December 4, 1S72, his name was put in nomi- 
nation for President of the United States, and vice-president, also, in 
proof that, although the State of Missouri was wedded to him, Ken- 
tucky was proud of her son, and, in her estimation, he belonged tO' 
the whole country, and would grace with wisdom and probity and 
prudence the highest position within the gift of the people. Uidge 
Mason Brown was secretary of the Commonwealth from 1855 to 1859. 
He was a profound thinker, a just judge, a true patriot. He was pop- 
ular, efficient, and, when at the age of sixty-seven he departed this 
life, on January 27, 1867, in Frankfort. Ky., he left friends and citi 
zens to deplore his death, and to aver that they would not soon look 
upon his like again. 

3 



34 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



Orlando Brown, another distinguished member of the family, was 
one of the most scholarly and elegant men Kentucky ever produced. 
For many years he was the editor of the Frankfort CommonweaWi. 
He was also secretary of State under Governor Crittenden for a time, 
and was commissioner of Indian affairs under President Taylor. 

And so, growing, as it were, root and branch, fiber and blossom, in 
the heart of Kentucky, this great people have made a name woven 
through and through Kentucky's integral fame as a State, and have 
taken precedence, in communities in which they resided, for dignity, 
genius, and ability. 

John Mason Brown, the subject of my sketch, is the oldest son of 
Judge Mason Brown, and his mother's maiden name was Miss Mary 
Yoder, of Spencer county, Ky. John Mason was born in Frankfort, 
Ky., on the 26th of April, 1837. He was educated at Yale College, 
and graduated from that institution in 1S56. He studied law with 
Thomas M. Lindsay, Esq., of Frankfort, Ky., and entered upon the 
practice of his profession in St. Louis, Mo., in 1858. The years 
1859-60 he spent in the West among the Indians. The spirit of 
adventure and unrest had seized him, and the roving, nomadic life not 
only afforded him pleasure through its novelty, and the outdoor exist- 
ence invigorated his already splendid constitution, but his experiences 
widened his knowledge of men and expanded his views regarding 
the Western world. 

In 1862, he returned to Kentucky and entered the Federal army 
as major of the Tenth Kentucky Cavalry. In 1863, he was promoted 
to the colonelcy of the Forty-fifth mounted infantry, which position he 
continued to hold ; a portion of the time, however, he commanded the 
Second brigade in the Fifth division of the Twenty-third Army Corps. 
The services of his command were devoted to the Army of the West, 
where they were in constant requisition. 

At the close of the internecine struggle, he was mustered out of 
the service, and re-entered upon the practice of his profession at 
Lexington, Ky., as the partner of Madison C. Johnson, Esq., which 
firm continued until 1873, when he removed from Lexington to the 
city of Louisville, Ky., at which point he entered upon a copartner- 
ship with W. F. Barrett (who was his brother-in-law). In 1882, he 
and George M. Davie, Esq., formed a copartnership, and in 1885 the 
name of Judge Alex. P. Hum]:)hrey was added to the firm, and it stands 
today "Brown, Humphrey & Davie." The brilliance, erudition, and 
probity embraced in the trio of names I have hitherto mentioned under 
the sketch of George M, Davie, Esq., and the merit and genius of 
the three gentlemen are too well known to recpiire rej)etition here. 



COLONEL JOHN MASON BROWN. 



35 



Colonel John Mason Brown delivered the oration on the anniversary 
of the battle of Blue Lick Springs, the 19th day of August, 1S82, and 
he was also the orator of the centennial anniversary of the city of 
Frankfort, Ky., October 6, 1886. These two orations were remarka- 
ble for their historic research and forensic display, and were enjoyed 
by assembled thousands of Kentuckians and others. In 1869, h^ ^^^s 
united in the holy bonds of matrimony to Miss Mary O. Preston, of 
Lexington, Ky., daughter of General William Preston, and brilliant 
and elegant as are all the ladies of the Preston family. 

They ha\e four children, charming and promising, who are the 
delight of their hearts and home. 





JOSHUA F. BULLITT, JR. 



June is the most beautiful month of all the year. Even denizens 
of cities admit the fact, and with tenfold force are its enchantments 
enhanced with those who live ''afar from the mad'ning crowd." 

And why should it not be so, when their senses are regaled with 
breeze-loads of fragrance and eye- fills of beauty; when the trees 
fling out their green banners, and Mother Earth puts on her ho) 'day 
gown of emerald velvet, embossed with rainbow-tinted flowers; Aviien 
the throats of birds are full of golden and silver notes, sweeter than 
the gurgling of Egyptian flutes; when rippling tides grow pellucid, 
and Dame Nature, wandering on sloping shores, over bloom-broidered 
meads, or climbing heights whose eternal solitudes remain undisturbed 
by the foot of man, wears ever a serene and tender smile? 

To-day, everywhere we may hear the jarring thunder of presses 
that never pause, and the ring of the hammer on the anvil; we may 
see edifices reared like palaces on either hand; but how many of us 
pause to remember that over a century ago this State was a howling 
wilderness, and that the possessions we now enjoy were gained for us 

(36) 



JOSHUA F. BULLITT, JR. 37 

by our forefathers, and that too at the cost of many Hves? How many 
of us pause amid the rush and hurry of every-day life to remember, 
when we look into the faces of some of our fellow-citizens, that their 
ancestors gathered around the camp-fires, and stemmed the Ohio in 
birchen bark canoes, struggled, died, but to the last were ever upheld 
and aspiring that the rare emprise of this wonderful land — the Indian's 
hunting ground, Kaintuckee — might be ours? Yet the annals of our 
State bear the record that Captain Thomas Bullitt, having distinguished 
himself in the expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1773, in the month 
of June in that same year took command of a small band of advent- 
urous spirits, in company with Hancock Taylor (both surveyors), and 
James, George, and Robert McAfee, in company with their brother- 
in-law, James McCown, took command of another band, and they 
came down the Ohio together and reached the mouth of Limestone 
creek, where Maysville now stands, and remained there for two 
days. 

On July 4th and 5th they visited Big Bone Lick, in what is now 
Boone county, and made seats and tent poles out of the enormous 
back-bones and ribs of the mastodon which were found there in large 
quantities. 

On July 7th, at the mouth of Levisa or Kentucky river the com- 
panies separated, Captain Bullitt going to the Falls, which point he 
reached on July 8th, pitched his camp above the mouth of the Bear- 
grass creek, and retired at night to a shoal above Corn Island. He 
surveyed land under warrants of Lord Dunmore below the Falls to Salt 
river, and up that stream to Bullitt's Lick, in what is now Bullitt 
county. In August he laid out the town of Louisville on part of the 
plot of the present city. And so is it that while Kentucky remains a 
Commonwealth, and Louisville stands incorporated as a city, and 
while the waters of "the beautiful river" foam and whirl at the falls, 
the name of "Bullitt" must go sounding on forever, indissolubly knit 
in with the fibers of memory, and be part and parcel of the one and 
the other. It is a fit theme for praise and pride, not only to individ- 
uals, but to the State at large. And Kentucky history readily accords 
what is due; for pages are devoted to the achievements of this noble 
and excellent family. Towns and counties are named for them. We 
have a Bullitt county, Bullitt's Station, Bullitt's Lick, Bullittsburg, and 
BuUittsville. And from those early days to the present time we have 
never been without two or three Bullitts to occupy places of brilliance 
and prominence in Kentucky. Especially prominent among them 
were Cuthbert and Thomas Bullitt, the first two gentlemen who em- 
barked in the mercantile business in Louisville. They were distin- 



38 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

guished for probity and splendid bnsiness qualifications. They became 
very prosperous, and attained large possessions that were left to their 
children by way of inheritance. 

Alexander Scott Bullitt was another member of this famous family, 
who was justly popular. His career was marked by intellectual brill- 
iance and personal excellence. His father, Cuthbert Bullitt, of Vir- 
ginia, was a lawyer of distinction, who practiced his profession with 
success until he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of Vir- 
ginia, which office he held at the time of his demise. In 1784, six 
years previous to his father's death, Alexander Scott Bullitt emigrated 
to Kentucky (it was then a portion of Virginia), and he settled on or 
near the stream called BuUskin, in what is now Shelby county. The 
depredations of the Indians in that locality compelled him to seek 
a less exposed situation, and he came to Jefferson county, where he 
entered and settled upon the tract of land on which he continued to 
reside until his death. In 1792 he was elected a delegate to the 
convention which met in Danville and framed the constitution of 
Kentucky. After the adoption of the constitution he represented Jef- 
ferson county in the Legislature, the first fonvention of which took 
place in Lexington, Ky. , in a two-story log house on June 4, 1792, 
and Alexander Scott Bullitt was the first speaker of the Senate in that 
body politic, a position which he filled acceptably until 1799, when 
he was again chosen a delegate to amend the constitution. He was 
chosen president of this convention. The year following, 1800, he 
was elected lieutenant-governor of the State. He served one term 
in this capacity. After this the county of Jefferson continued to send 
him to the Legislature, either as senator or representative, until 1808, 
when he retired from public life, and resided on his farm in Jefferson 
county until his death, which occurred on the 13th of April, 1816. 

Equally prominent and admired and beloved to an unusual degree 
is Judge Joshua F. Bullitt, who in March, 1861, was elected judge of 
the Court of Aiipeals to fill the unexpired term of Henry C. Wood, 
deceased. Judge Bullitt is a man of exceeding spirit, brave and fear- 
less in expressing his opinions, who, knowing the right, dares maintain 
it in the face of overwhelming odds. Certain it is that he waited in 
the furnace blast the Jiangs of transformation for the sake of the land 
he loved and cherished ! 

On November 22, 1864, as once before on August 11, 1864, by 
order of General Burbridge, he was arrested, charged Avith belonging 
to a secret political society called the "Sons of Liberty," in company 
with Thomas Jeffries, M. J. Paul, H. F. Kalfus, John Talbott, John 
Colgan, and John Harris. They were nominally sent off via Mem- 



JOSHUA F. liULLITJ-, JR. 39 

fjhis, Tenn., into the Southern Confederacy, but really retained in the 
military prison in that place. Their release was finally secured by 
the Confederate General N. B. Forrest, in exchange for some Mem- 
phis citizens and engineers, captured in one of his raids. On March 
I, 1S65, he was summoned for trial before the Legislature, to be held 
on May 23d, same year, on the charge of belonging to a treasonable 
association. The President was requested to grant Judge Bullitt res- 
pite from arrest, that he might return to Kentucky from Canada to 
attend the trial. Judge Bullitt himself wrote a magnificent letter to 
Thomas E. Bramlette, then governor of Kentucky, which for dignity, 
spirit, and manly independence has not its equal in the annals of liter- 
ature. He had sought refuge in a neutral country from the violence 
of military rule, and positively refused to return to Kentucky, when 
months previous her military commander had publicly declared that 
he should be tried by a military court and executed without any chance 
of his appeal to the clemency of the President. As a consequence, 
Governor Bramlette approved the address of the Legislature to him, 
requesting him to remove from office Hon. Joshua F. Bullitt, one of 
the Judges of the Court of Appeals (for the Third District and Chief- 
Justice), formally removed him and declared the office vacant. Thus 
his case was disposed of without any trial, after he had been arrested, 
ordered and sent out of the State by the military authorities without 
opportunity for defense, and was held at bay by threats of an unscrup- 
ulous military commander to execute him without chance of clemency. 

But time, the healer of all trials and tribulations, brought about 
changes which proved that Judge Bullitt had never lost the high place 
he held in the esteem of his fellow statesmen. When the internecine 
struggle had ceased and military rule was abolished in Kentucky, he 
returned to his home and lived to welcome in the happy day when the 
Legislature, by twenty-one to eight in the Senate and forty-three to 
nine in the House, adopted the resolution freeing him from the accu- 
sations of the mock trial of May 23, 1865, and March i, 1865, and 
declaring that they considered the whole affair an insult to the honor 
and dignity of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, a flagrant outrage on 
his constitutional rights, and a manifest violation of all rules of equality 
and justice. The proceedings and address in his case were rescinded 
and declared null and void. 

What a record of oppression and outrage, side by side with that of 
the gallant Captain Tom Bullitt, who came in the splendor of his 
young manhood and penetrated the unexplored wilds of Kentucky. 
The commentary on the gratitude of the people is necessarily in the 
usual line of comment. 



40 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

Colonel Thomas Walker Bullitt is another member of this illus- 
trious family. He is an eminent lawyer, and has a fine practice at the 
Louisville bar. He married Miss Annie Priscilla Logan, a descend- 
ant of the great Marshall clan, and herself a lady of brilliant ability 
and extreme loveliness of character. Colonel Bullitt was in Morgan's 
cavalry during the war, and was for two years a prisoner at Fort Dela- 
ware. Patrick Henry was a grand-uncle, and Alexander Scott Bullitt, 
hitherto cited in this sketch, was his grandfather. His great-grand- 
father, Colonel William Christian, was killed by the Indians in 1786. 
W. A. Bullitt, William C. Bullitt, Dr. Henry M. Bullitt, John C. Bul- 
litt, and Thomas W. Bullitt are all, or were all, men who occupied 
places of high trust, and who were intrinsically men of probity and 
noble attainments. 

Joshua F. Bullitt, Jr., whose name adorns my sketch, is the oldest 
son of Judge Joshua F. Bullitt, Sr. , and Elizabeth R. Smith, both 
Kentuckians by birth and Kentuckians in character — large-brained 
and large-hearted, a credit to either sex, and beloved and honored by 
friends and relatives. Joshua F. Bullitt, Jr., was born in Jefferson 
county on the 24th day of July, 1856. He was educated in the city 
schools of Louisville, and later on he matriculated at the Washington 
and Lee University at Lexington, Va. In 1878 he studied law under 
his father and Attorney-General James Speed, completing his course 
at the University of Virginia. In 1879 he entered ui)on the practice 
of his profession with his father in I>ouisville, Ky. In 1884 he was 
chosen Elector for the Fifth Congressional District, and was elected to 
the Legislature from Jefferson county in August, 1885, and was on 
the Committee on the Code of Practice. He was married to Mrs. M. 
T. Churchill, March 4, 1884. They have one child, a daughter. Miss 
Mary Cummins Bullitt. Mr. Bullitt is a gentleman of fine attain- 
ments, great popularity, and possesses an exceedingly winning address. 
He is yet young, and the possibilities of his future lie untrodden before 
him. He has great character, a fine mind, and much energy and per 
severance. He can attain whatsoever he chooses to attempt. He has 
many friends and admirers, who will see that he carries his flag to vic- 
tory whenever he sounds the tocsin to advance upon the enemy, for 
they all wish him success and happiness, and a long life and prosperity 
to him and to those who are dear to him. 




HON. ROBERT A. BURTON. 



In compiling biographical sketches of the representative men of 
Kentucky, I have sought in every instance to do justice to each sub- 
ject under discussion, and to render honor to those to whom honor is 
due. It is a generally-accepted opinion, however, that those we love 
and admire are without faults. Be this true or fallacious, I find to-day 
that I have no language at my command through whose use I could do 
Justice to the Hon. Robert A. Burton as a man and a gentleman, or in 
which I could e.x])ress his merits of head and heart. This distinguished 
Kentuckian was born in the county of Mercer, or that portion of Mer- 
cer county which at a later date was divided off and erected under the 
title of Boyle county, in 1842, and is the ninety-fourth of the State. 
The place of his nativity was made historic not only by his birth, but 
by the battle that was fought over the old homestead at Perryville, 
October 8, 1862. On the nth day of August, 1834, Robert A. Bur- 
ton first saw the light of day. He is the third son of John A. Burton, 
Esq.. of Perrvville, Ky., who was a gentleman of wealth and great 
culture, and who was considered the ablest financier in that part of the 

(41) 



4 2 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

country, being both a farmer and a banker. At his death, he left a 
fortune to each of his children, every one of whom was in life and 
character and ability worthy of descent from so noble a father. 

Their mother's maiden name was Louisiana Chandler. 

The Burtons and Chandlers at an early day emigrated to Kentucky 
from Virginia, and the father and mother of R. A. Burton were both 
born in this State, which was admitted into the Union on the 7th 'day 
of June, 1792. Their third son — the subject of this sketch — grad- 
uated from the Perry ville University in 1856, and Avas admitted to the 
Bar in i860. In 1859, he was elected to the Legislature from Marion 
county, where he now resides. He had no opposition. During the stormy 
days of i86o-'6i, he remained, and was so considered, a staunch Breck- 
inridge Democrat. Lideed, it was his vote and the vote of Lieuten- 
ant-Governor Richard Jacob, from the county of Oldham, that held 
Kentucky true to the motto graven on the rock contributed to Wash- 
ington's monument: "Kentucky, the first State admitted into the 
Union after the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and will be the 
last to go out." 

On the 17th day of May, i860, Mr. Burton was married to Miss 
Margaret Lowry, of Jessamine county. She is a lady of great per- 
sonal beauty, and is possessed of many accomplishments. She is the 
daughter of James Lowry, Esq., now deceased, who was a wealthy 
and popular farmer of that county. 

In 1862, Mr. Burton was elected judge of Marion county, and in 
that capacity he served altogether twelve years. 

In 1869, he was elected to the Kentucky Senate from the Marion 
district, defeating the Hon. C. S. Hill for the position. The latter 
gentleman was an antagonist of no mean ability, having represented 
the district in the Congress of the United States, and also being a law- 
yer of great prominence. At the time, Mr. Burton overcame a major- 
ity of six hundred; and in 1876 he was chosen a delegate from the 
congressional district to the national convention which nominated Til- 
den and Hendricks. 

Recently, he was one of the opponents of Hon. Attilla Cox, of 
Owen county, for the position of Collector of Revenue for the Fifth 
district of Kentucky, and, although defeated in his aspirations by the 
api)ointment of Mr. Cox, that gentleman was graceful and courtly 
enough to make Mr. Burton one of his deputy collectors, a position 
which he now holds and will honor. 

In personnel. Judge Burton is a man of distinguished appearance. 
He is tall, knitted like an athlete, a perfect type of the old-time aris- 
tocratic Kentuckian, kind-hearted, generous, and courtly as a prince^ 



HON. ROBERT A. BURTON. 



43 



He stands high in the estimation of the people, and his many warm 
and true friends cherish for him an affection which knows neither 
bounds nor estrangement as the years go by. Would to God the State 
had five hundred thousand citizens like him! Then, indeed, would 
cease the sorrow and sufiTering of the indigent, for none can appeal to 
him in vain for either alms or human sympathy. 

He resides on a fine farm in Marion county, surrounded by every 
elegance and comfort wealth and position and a cultured taste can 
draw about him. There he lives as luxuriously as a king, without any 
kingly cares to make his head lie uneasily because of the crown he 
wears. His crown is a noble manhood; his throne is the hearts of his 
friends. God bless him ! 




tSi^- 



-g<a«s 




HON. JOHN GRIFFIN CARLISLE. 

Kenton county is one of the newest and smallest in the State of 
Kentucky and ranks as the ninetieth in order of formation. It was 
organized in 1840, out of the Western part of Campbell county, as 
divided by the Licking river. Its area is small, being only from six 
to twelve miles wide and twenty-five miles long. It is easy of access, 
with the Lexington pike on the West and the Kentucky Central rail- 
road along its Eastern border. Its bottom lands are rich and very 
productive ; the uplands are undulating, but grow fine wheat, corn, 
and tobacco. The county is dotted with well-kept gardens and many 
excellent dairy farms for the supply of Covington and Cincinnati mar- 
kets. The lands that lie along the Lexington turnpike are said to be 
of a very superior quality. 

The county is, indeed, excellent in everything ; its people are 
intelligent and progressive ; its towns are well ordered and thickly 
populated, wearing that air of thrift and independence which goes hand 
in hand with success. 

The annals of the past bear silent witness of the earliest visitors who 
set foot on the borders of the Licking river, the date going back to the 



HON. JOHN GRIFFIN CARLISLE. 45 

month of March in the year 1751, when Christopher Gist, in his tour 
as agent of the Ohio Company, with his small following of white men, 
crossed the Licking at or near its mouth. From that time down to the 
present day there have always been men of marked distinction in t^iat 
locality in the State: Kenton, Taylor, Stephens, Morgan, Morehead, 
Stephenson, Benton, Sandford, Bright, our own delightful General 
John W. Finnell, and the central figure of the Democratic party of to- 
day, on whom the eyes of brave and independent citizens of the Union 
turn, as the eyes of the wise men of old must have looked uDon the 
splendor of the Star of Bethlehem, recognizing it as the sign of the 
presence of the Saviour of mankind on this earth: I refer to John 
Griffin Carlisle, one of the greatest men in America, whose views of 
public policy have ever been conservative, statesmanlike, and liberal, 
and in whom all earnest thinkers must recognize the coming saviour of 
the Democratic party. 

John Ciriffin Carlisle was born in Campbell county, Ky., on the 
5th of September, 1835. He received his education in the best schools 
afforded by the neighborhood in which he lived. At fifteen years of 
age he, himself, became an instructor of the young, and until he was 
twenty years old it was his vocation to teach " the young ideas how to 
shoot." After that time he began the study of the legal profession 
under the guidance of Ex-Governor John \\. Stephenson and Judge 
William B. Kinkead. In 1S57, he became the partner of the latter 
gentleman, and at once took rank at the bar and in general j^ublic 
estimation as possessing one of the clearest and most analytic minds of 
any young man in Kentucky. In 1859 to 1861, he was elected to the 
lower house of the General Assembly of Kentucky. He was con- 
demned, however, in the late civic strife to rest on his laurels, because 
of the entertainment of certain ardent sentiments incompatible with a 
dream of promotion in the community he had hitherto had the honor 
to represent. But the frowns of Fate and Fortune could not withstand 
the smiling conviction of the ambitious young Kentuckian that he was 
born to fill a niche in the halls of Fame. 

In 1S64, Mr. Carlisle was nominated for presidential elector on the 
Democratic ticket, but this honor he declined to accept. In 1S65, he 
was the Democratic candidate for the State Senate from Kenton 
county, and was defeated at the polls by his opponent, Mortimer M. 
Benton, Escp 

Fiat jiistitia mat arlia?i runs the Latin maxim, and it became the 
watchword of the Democratic party in Kentucky and brought about 
a different order of public affairs, for in February, 1866, the Senate 
declared the seat of Mr. Benton vacant, because the election was 



46 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

" neither free nor equal in the sense required in the Constitution, being 
regulated, controlled, and unduly influenced by armed soldiers in the 
service of the United States in utter disregard of the law." 

Mr. Carlisle was elected to fill the vacancy from 1866 to 1869, and 
was triumphandy re-elected for another term from 1869 to 1873. He 
was also a delegate-at-large from Kentucky to the National Demo- 
cratic Convention at New York, in July, 1868. 

In 187 1 he resigned his position in the State Senate, which he had 
so ably and creditably filled — his rulings while Speaker of that body 
being invariably sustained when appealed from — and accepted the 
Democratic nomination for lieutenant-governor of the State, to which 
office he was elected August, 1871, for four years, receiving 125,955 
to 86,145 votes cast for the Radical nominee, serving the people of 
Kentucky in that capacity until 1875. I" 1872, for a few months, he 
was also leading editor of the Louisville Daily Ledger. In 1876 Mr. 
Carlisle was alternate presidential elector for the State-at-large. He 
was also elected to the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, and Forty-seventh Con- 
gresses, and was re-elected to the Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, and Fiftieth 
Congresses, the last election occurring November 2, 1886. As a 
Democrat he received no opposition to the Forty-eighth and Forty- 
ninth Congresses, but the labor movement in the last election not being 
fully anticipated, he was confronted with a formidable candidate, who 
was vanquished, however, with eight hundred and odd majority. 

Mr. Carlisle was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives 
December 3, 1883, and re-elected in December, 1885, and so impartial 
was his ruling, so just, unvaryingly kind, and courteous was his bear- 
ing, that at the close of the Forty-ninth Congress the Republican 
members of that august body presented Mr. Carlisle with a splendid 
silver service, at the cost of $500, in token of their appreciation and 
respect for him as a fair and considerate Speaker. Indeed, it is fre- 
quently declared that as a parliamentarian he has few equals and no 
superiors in Europe or America. So clear, forcible, logical, and con- 
vincing are his arguments that his following is unusually strong from 
political and legal standpoints, while socially and intellectually, in the 
estimation of his many friends, he is invincible. 

His dignity is unsullied, and his ability is admitted to be pre- 
eminent. His oratory is of the highest order, and as a statesman he 
is at once bold, brilliant, and sagacious. Should he ever occupy before 
the American people a i)lace more ])rominent, but scarcely less brilliant, 
than he holds to-day, it is prophesied by those who are the closest 
observers of political events that the emancipation of his party and 
his country would be lastingly assured. The reins of the government 



HON. JOHN GRIFFIN CARLISLE. 



47 



would be held with ability, prudence, and firmness, and the ])ros]:)erity 
and advancement of the nation would be more brilliant than at any 
other time within the history of the United States. 

In personnel Mr. Carlisle is as strikingly fine and vigorous as he is 
distinctively grand in intellect and character. He is married, and his 
wife is one of the noblest and most excellent of her sex. She has long 
ruled in social circles, and is as popular in society as Mr. Carlisle is 
popular throughout the entire country. 





HON. ASHER GRAHAM CARUTH. 



When one pauses to think — unbiased by fancied wrongs or angry- 
passions — of the bonds of good-fellowship and the inalienable ties of 
consanguinity that hem in and knit together and bind the hearts and 
the memories, the interests and ambitions, of the people of these United 
States, from the storm swept prairies and lofty mountain peaks of the 
North-west, to the lemon and orange groves of Florida and the mag- 
nolia bosques of Louisiana and Texas, vocal with the songs of the 
mocking-birds, and from the Eastern shores, where the waves of the 
Atlantic lap the creeping sands, to the Golden Gates of California, 
where the mellow music of the Pacific tide fills all the slumberous air, 
one realizes how impossible it must ever be — States' rights, parly 
])rinciples, or what not veering opinion and desire — to maintain divided 
interests and separate national politics in this great, free, and enlight- 
ened land ! 

When we talk of the Slate of Tennessee we are compelled to revert 
to the pioneer days when the sons of Virginia and North Carolina 
made their homes within her borders; when the howling wolf and the 
tawny savage fought them l)ack step by step. When we think of 
Kentucky's early days it is the same — and so on through all the States 
that now go to form one splendid country. Always the .same! The 

(48) 



HON. ASHER GRAHAM CARUTH. 49 

brave and enlightened sons of one State sought the soHtudes of the 
wilderness and the sweep of the prairies and the peaks of the mount- 
ains to expand the country and open up the way for civilization that 
the United States might be the foremost nation of the world. One re- 
calls the privations and sufferings of the brave, adventurous spirits long 
since flown from our midst, and petty and small indeed seem the little 
spites and political ambitions that sway the multitudes to-day who 
people the States, where pure suffrage is no longer known and "the 
powers that be " are blatant of their triumphs. Where is the com- 
munity of interest that once characterized the nation ? Where the 
brotherly love and the pride of country? The solemn silence that 
wraps the memories of the past gives never an answer. 

These thoughts came into my mind to-day, like the reverberations 
of harmonious strains when peace, purity, and patriotism filled the 
nation's heart. Only now and then, sparkling like gems whose brill- 
iance no earthly setting can enhance or destroy, we see again in men 
of to-day the divine splendor of the spirits that have passed away. 
They shine with no uncertain light in the pulpit, at the forum, on the 
hustings, and in the councils of the nation, and whenever they appear 
they have their following — men do homage to their brilliance and 
genius as naturally as each planet that revolves in the heavens has its 
satellites. 

Such a man is Asher Graham Caruth, the subject of my sketch, and 
as such he commands the respect and admiration of his fellowmen. 
He is the third son of H. C. Caruth and Miss Mary Mansfield. His 
father was a Tennesseean by birth, but his ancestors came originally 
from North Carolina. His paternal grandfather was a captain in the 
Revolutionary War, a fact of which he is very proud. And who that 
is thoroughly acquainted with the history of that noble State can call 
the pride vainglory? When we remember that, as early as 15S5 to 
1589, Sir Walter Raleigh gave his auspices toward the settlement of 
that splendid land, and that within the borders of the State where roll 
the waters of the Roanoke are engraven undying records of chivalry 
and martyrdom and independence; when we recall how savages 
attacked and massacred the settlers, and how fever and famine set 
their ravenous teeth on the hearts that the Tuscaroras and Corees had 
left to beat, and how they would not despair; when we remember the 
sanguinary conflicts at Guilford Court-house, Brier Creek, Cedar 
Springs, Fishing Creek, and other places, and that the Mecklenburg 
Declaration of Independence was made May 20, 1775, so that North 
Carolina has the honor to have first proposed a separation from Great 
Britain ; I repeat, when we recall all these salient points in history, 
4 



50 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

who shall blame a man for being proud of his ancestral North Carolina 
line, and who shall so far sink beneath the level of appreciation and 
pride of State and country as to call that pride — vainglory ? 

Mr. Caruth's mother came from a race of people whose names are 
honorably enrolled in the annals of our own State. She was a Mans- 
field, and through generations Allen county, Ky., has been the chosen 
place where they rest beneath their own vine and fig trees. One of 
her relatives, George W. Mansfield, was a member of the convention 
which framed the present Constitution of Kentucky, assembled at 
Frankfort, Ky., October i, 1849. He also served his State in the 
House of Representatives through the years 1834, 1835, 1836, 1846, 
and 1850. Another relative, E. D. Mansfield, wrote a most delightful 
memoir of Dr. David Drake, the distinguished physician, professor, 
and author who founded and established the Medical College of Ohio 
at Cincinnati. Still another was one of the Spartan band which was 
known as "The Forlorn Hope," and which was led by Colonel Will- 
iam Whitley at the battle of the Thames, fought in October, 1813. 
His address to his band will live in history along with Patrick Henry's 
sunburst of oratory, " Give me liberty or give me death ! '" He said : 
"Boys, we have been selected to second our colonel in the charge 
(Colonel Richard M. Johnson). Act well your part ; recollect the 
watchword — victory or death ! " * * How well they recollected 
it we all know, as but two were left to recall the incidents of the bat- 
tle and to bear witness as to who killed Tecumseh. Such incidents 
shine in the memory like "jewels in an Ethiop'sear" in contrast with 
the sordid and self-engrossed aspect of modern times. 

But I digress. When I leave the present and wander amid the 
hallowed scenes of the past, I often forget the busy life of to-day. 
Asher Graham Caruth was born in Scottsville, Allen county, Ky. , on 
the 7th of February, 1844. He was educated in the Louisville High 
School. In 1864, he was law librarian of Louisville, Ky., and in 1866 
he graduated from the University of Louisville, Ky. He entered 
upon the practice of his profession in Hopkinsville, Ky. , at which 
place he combined with his love of legal lore the qualifications of a 
popular and able editor, for he founded the Kentucky New Era, a 
delightful paper still in existence in that enterprising and progressive 
town. Li 1 87 1, Mr. Caruth returned to Louisville, where he again 
practiced his profession, devoting his entire time to the blind God- 
dess of Justice. He was soon elected attorney of the School Board, 
and this position he continued to fill until he was elected Common- 
wealth's attorney in August, 1880, of the Ninth Judicial district. He 
was the elector of the Fifth Congressional district in 1876. And 



HON. ASHER GRAHAM CARUTH. 5 1 

recently he was re-elected without opposition to the same position, 
which he hlled with exceptional ability and brilliance. On October 9, 
1886, he was nominated for Congress from the Fifth Congressional 
district and elected on the 2d of November following by a majority 
of one hundred and forty votes. No man enjoys a more sincere and 
widespread popularity than does Mr. Caruth, and whatever he under- 
takes to do he does with a dash and vim which are superlatively sug- 
gestive of a latent power that he holds in matchless reserve. 

As a friend he is fervent and sincere, as an opponent he is to be 
feared and avoided, for with him there is "no such word as fail." 

Mr. Caruth has a brother — George William Caruth — of whom too 
much can not be said in praise, and of whom I never think save as 
"the Prince of Gentlemen!" He resides in Little Rock, Ark. 
Another brother, David Caruth, Esq., of St. Louis, Mo., is a gentle- 
man of prominence, ability, and popularity. 

Mr. Caruth married Miss Terry, a lady of great refinement and 
elegance, well known in society, and the daughter of a prominent 
commission merchant (now deceased), of this city. 





GEORGE M. DAVIE. 



In the year T796 the county of Christian, in the State of Ken- 
tucky, was formed and named in honor of Colonel William Christian, 
a young Virginian, who fought gallantly in Braddock's war, and who 
attained the reputation of being a brave, active, and efficient officer. 
When the Indian hostilities ceased, he married the sister of Patrick 
Henry, and settled himself in Bottetourt county, Virginia. At one 
time he was a member of the General State Convention, and, on the 
conclusion of the war, for several years he represented his county in 
the Virginia Legislature. His reputation for civic talents was equaled 
only by his peerless military record. 

In 17S5, Colonel Christian emigrated to Kentucky, and settled on 
Beargrass. Colonel Floyd had been killed by an Indian in 1783. 
He had been "chief among the chosen" in that section of the State, 
and his loss seemed irreparable to the people until Colonel Christian 
located himself among them. His intelligence, tireless energy, and 
knowledge of the Indian character gave him the front rank among the 
pioneers. His presence was greatly needed, but his o])i)ortunity to 

(52) 



GEORGE U. DAVIE. 53 

benefit his countrymen was of brief duration in Kentucky. In April 
of the succeeding year (1786), a body of Indians committed depreda- 
tions on Beargrass, and escaped to the opposite side of the Ohio river 
with their usual matchless celerity of movement, and thence made 
their way leisurely back to their towns. Colonel Christian, at the 
head of a party of fearless men, went in swift pursuit, overtook them 
on their homeward route, and gave them battle. The conflict was 
bloody, the Indian force destroyed, but Colonel Christian fell mortally 
wounded, as did one of his followers. Colonel Christian was remarkably 
popular, and his death was long and much regretted. His daughter 
had married, during the fall preceding his unfortunate "taking off," 
Alexander Scott Bullitt, Esq., son of the distinguished lawyer, Cuth- 
bert Bullitt, and himself a brilliant and excellent statesman, who 
served Kentucky as representative, senator, lieutenant-governor, and 
private citizen, always with distinction, fidelity, and great honor to 
himself 

Christian county is also made famous in history as the birth] )lace of 
Jefferson Davis, ex-president of the Confederate States of America, 
but that part of Christian in which he was born is now included in 
Todd county. 

We have as a citizen among us a man of kindred genius, spirit, 
and ability, who also claims Christian county as his birthplace. I refer 
to George M. Davie, Esq., whose name graces the head-lines of this 
biographical sketch of " Representative Corn-crackers and Kentucky 
Politicians;" for, though he has no " war record," being too young to 
take part in it at the time of the great civil struggle, and though he 
has attended to his profession rather than politics, he is emphatically a 
representative of the highest and noblest type of Kentucky manhood, 
possessing all the fire and fervor of the modern statesman, with the 
strength, and polish, and soundness of Kentuckians of the old school 
of gentlemen and scholars, who have given to the State her imperish- 
able fame for chivalry, and oratory, and power. He is the son of 
Winston J. Davie, Esq., and Miss Sarah A. Phillips. His parents 
were persons of the highest social position, and of that exclusive and 
elegant tone that distinguished large slave-holders in the brave days of 
old. Mr. Davie's grandparents were North Carolinians. His mother 
was a brilliant and handsome lady, who was a native of Columbus, 
Georgia, but his father was a Kentuckian, born also in Christian 
county. 

The birth record for the subject of my sketch stands : George M. 
Davie, March 16, 1848. He is the second child. His education was 
very "thorough." He attended the best schools the country afforded 



54 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



at Memphis, Tenn., at Centre College, Danville, Ky., and, in 1865, 
he matriculated at Princeton College, New Jersey, from which institu- 
tion of learning he graduated with great honor in 1868. 

In 1869, Mr. Davie came to Louisville, Ky., and entered upon the 
study of law with Robert Woolley, Esq., whose brilliant ability and 
agreeability General Humphrey Marshall often asserted were not 
excelled by any man in Kentucky, and were equaled by only a few. 

In 1870, Mr. Davie, who developed the most remarkable love and 
adaptability for his chosen profession, received his license. He 
attended the law school but three months, after which he entered the 
office of Muir & Bijur. He remained with these gentlemen until 
1874, when he became part of the firm, which remained in existence 
until 1877, after which time it stood "Bijur & Davie" until 1882. 
The senior partner died, and after his melancholy demise Mr. Davie 
formed a copartnership with John Mason Brown, Esq., his brother-in- 
law. They continued to practice their profession in unison until Feb- 
ruary, 1885, when the name of Judge Alex. P. Humphrey became 
incorporated in that of the fiim. And so it stands at the present 
time, forming a trio of the most brilliant array of names ever woven 
together in this or any other State in the Union. For profoundness, 
ability, and a thorough comprehension of the intricacies and techni- 
calities involved in the profession they have few equals and no supe- 
riors. 

Mr. Davie on December 5, 1878, was wedded to Miss Margaret 
Howard Preston, daughter of General William Preston, of Lexington, 
Ky. Like all the ladies of the "Preston house," Mrs. Davie is 
superb. No Kentuckian who takes pride in his State and the brilliant 
records of her best people but feels his heart warm and his blood thrill 
at thought of this great and excellent family — the Prestons. In the 
late war their property was confiscated ; they were themselves expa- 
triated, but they boasted of the " blue blood" of royalty in their veins, 
and they never once shirked the issue of events brought on them by a 
proud defense and expression of their independent principles antl their 
fearlessly -maintained opinions. 

General William Preston has attained the highest distinction as 
statesman, soldier, citizen, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipo- 
tentiary to Spain under President Buchanan in 1858. 

In 186 1, he requested his recall. He had covered himself with glory 
in his foreign course, having received the warmest encomiums for the 
same from William H. Seward, the LTnited States Secretary of State. 
The first battle of Manassas was fought before he returned to the 
United States, and when he reached Kentucky he immediately began 



GEORGE M. DAVIE. 55 

to urge the people to prompt and united resistance to tlie Lincoln 
administration. How futile were his attempts, we all know only too 
well. He entered the Confederate army. He served on the staff of 
General Albert Sidney Johnston, who fell and expired in his arms at the 
instant of a glorious assault on the enemy. 

He served also on the staff of General Beauregard, but was soon 
commissioned brigadier-general, in April, 1S62. He was at Corinth 
and Tupelo. He guarded the line of the Tallahatchie and aided in 
the defense of Vicksburg, the first siege of which was abandoned July 
27, 1862, by Admirals Farragut and Porter and the Federal land 
forces. In October, 1862., he reached Kentucky, but too late to take 
part in the battle of Perryville. At Murfreesboro, he commanded the 
right of Breckinridge's division, and in the fatal charge across Stone 
river he covered himself with the mantle of distinction. He com- 
manded the troops of South-western Virginia in 1S63. After the bat- 
tle of Chickamauga, the enemy retreated to Missionary Ridge, from 
which point of vantage General Preston dislodged them, storming and 
gaining the heights and driving the Federal troops pell-mell down the 
ridge through every avenue of escape to Chattanooga. It was a grand 
victory, a famous charge, which will rank in history side by side with 
the ride of the noble Six Hundred, 

"All in the Valley of Death." 

The Confederate loss in the charge, dead and wounded, was over a 
thousand men. As a Kentuckian, I am proud to accord the victory 
to General Preston. 

One child has blessed the union of Mr. Davie with the daughter of 
the brave and distinguished General Preston. He is now five years 
of age. 

Mr. Davie is highly respected in every relation of life. He has been 
devoted to his profession, and has more than once argued cases before 
the Supreme Court of the United States with great credit to himself. 
He has given but small time to politics, but he has been for five or six 
years the chairman of the Democratic committee of his district. 

He has also served as a member of the school board, I believe, 
during the years 1881 and 1882. Whenever the time comes when he 
chooses to leave his musty tomes of legal lore and stand before the 
people as a brave and fearless exponent of their rights in the councils 
of State or nation, that time will prove him to be a man of nerve, 
aml)ition, power, attainment, and accomplishment. He is brilliant, 
versatile, profound to an unusual and distinguished degree. His 
friends are many and his admirers are legion. 



5t> 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



In personal appearance, Mr. Davie is elegant, faultless, and suave 
as a courtier, but there is a light in his fine eyes and a firmness in his 
handsome face which, beyond all grace of manner and blandness of 
speech, declare the existence of a proud, free soul and a stainless 
conscience which dares maintain the right and fears to meet no issue. 




<^§>^- 



-&^(i. 




HON. HENRY C. DIXON. 



In the year 179S Henderson county was formed out of a part of 
Christian county. It was the thirty-eighth county organized in the 
State. It was named in honor of Colonel Richard Henderson. Its 
territory was originally much larger than it is at the present day, for 
three counties have since been formed from it — Hopkins in rSo6, 
Union in 181 1, and Webster in i860. The land comi:)rised within its 
borders is remarkable for its fertility. As a corn-growing county Hen- 
derson ranks sixth, but as a tobacco region it ranks first. The people 
who inhabit that chosen country are as versatile in genius and what is 
termed "native talent" as the land is notable for its fertility. Warmer 
hearts never beat, lovelier women, cleverer men never lived anywhere 
on the face of the globe than those that may be found any day, every- 
where, in Henderson. But in genuine cleverness in that rare spirit of 
bon]io))iie which makes a man a welcome guest wherever he appears 
and missed whenever he goes away — in that overflowing kind-hearted- 
ness and generous goodness which has long ago rendered Kentucky 
famous among States, and her children accounted the "chosen" of 

(57) 



58 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

the New World, Henry C. Dixon, the subject of this sketch, is the 
most bountifully blessed of any man I ever met, and, I had almost 
added, the most to be envied, because of his light and joyous heart. 
Surely the sun shone and the birds sang the day he was born, for so 
far he has been surrounded with light and joy and good cheer. Sep- 
tember, the loveliest month in all the year — September 19, 1845, so 
says the family chronicle, this glad spirit came to dwell among us. 
He is the second son of ex-Senator Archibald Dixon and Elizabeth 
R. Cabell. His father was a North Carolinian by birth, but by early 
adoption he became a Kentuckian; for, born in the year 1802, in 1804 
his father moved with his family to Kentucky, to Henderson county. 
He received a general education commensurate with the opportunities 
afforded the children of pioneers. 

Humphrey Marshall, the historian, in his " History of Kentucky," 
compiled and published in 181 2, makes mention of the fact that Cap- 
tain James Harrod, who settled Harrodsburg, could but imperfectly 
read or write, in these words: "It was not letters he learned nor 
books he studied. And, it may be asked, what there can be in the 
character of such a man that merits the notice of the historian? It is 
true, indeed, that the knowledge of letters, the perusal of books, and 
what is called an education, furnishes, enlightens, and enlarges the 
mind, and brings into action, with multiplied advantages, those quali- 
ties, both physical and mental, which nature gives to men. But it can 
not be affirmed that education creates any new organ or faculty of the 
soul, or gives a quality not otherwise inherent. Before the establish- 
ment of schools, and before the term education was ever known — 
aye, before letters were invented or books or pens were made, the 
human heart was the seat of kindness, of generosity, of fortitude, of 
magnanimity, and all the social virtues. The mind of man, in unison 
with his feelings, by a primeval decree, taught him justice, the first in 
importance of human virtues, which it cherished by reflections on the 
beneficent effects of doing unto others as he would that others should 
do unto him. This is the precept of nature. Then, without knowing 
how to read and write, James Harrod could be kind and obliging to 
his fellowmen, active and brave in their defense, dextrous in killing 
game, the source of supply, and liberal in the distribution of his 
spoils. He could be an expert pilot in the woods, and by his knowl- 
edge guide his followers to the destined ])oint witli C(iual certainty and 
safety. In fine, he could be a cajjtain over others less endowed with 
the u.seful and benevolent qualities of the heart and of the head. He 
was always ready to defend his companions and his country. What 
nobler act of merit could be chronicled?" 



HON. HEXRV C. DIXON. 59. 

So with Archibald Dixon. The divine spirit was in him to attain 
ascendancy over his fehowmen by superior c^uahties of head and 
heart. And althougli, as I have said, his opportunities for inteUectual 
attainments were hmited, he made the most of them, and when he 
left school he studied law, and in 1825 he began to practice his pro- 
fession. From the inception of his legal career he was successful to 
the time when, wearied with the accumulated honors of public life, he 
retired to the privacy of his own vine and fig tree. He represented 
his county in the Kentucky Legislature in 1830 and 1841, and was 
State senator in 1S36 and 1840. He was elected lieutenant-governor, 
1844 to 1848, on the Whig ticket, defeating General W. S. Pilcher by a 
majority of 11,081, whereas his co-nominee's (Governor Owsley) 
majority was only 4,624. In 1849, ^""^ '^^'^'^s a delegate to the convention 
which formed the present Constitution of Kentuck)-, and he was 
defeated by James Guthrie for president of that body by a party vote of 
forty-eight to fifty. In 185 1, as Whig candidate for Congress, he was 
defeated by Lazarus W. Powell. But in December, 1851, he was 
elected LTnited States senator over James Guthrie by seventy-one to 
fifty-eight, to fill the vacancy, 1852 to 1855, caused by Henry Clay's 
resignation. In this body he was the author of the famous Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, as accepted by Judge Douglas, repealing the Missouri 
Compromise act of 1821. In 1862, he was elected to the Border 
State Convention held in Louisville, where he vainly endeavored to 
avert the disasters of war by recommending measures of compromise 
and conciliation. After that he never appeared in public service. 
He died in 1876. 

Is it strange that the son of such a man should show to this gener- 
ation of Kentuckians the promise of brilliance and ability which his 
father displayed with such magnificence in the days when intellectual 
giants were wont to measure lances, whose memories to-day illumine 
the past with electric and imperishable refulgence? Henry C. Dixon 
was educated partially in Henderson. Later on he attended the cele- 
brated school of Dr. Sayre in Frankfort, Ky., and finally corajjleted 
his studies at the University in Toronto, Canada. 

He, too, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1S67. In 
1883, he was elected to the State Senate, where he has displayed such 
ability and has so won all hearts that he has enhanced the good opin- 
ions of his constituents, and has made other men wish they were his 
constituents. He is young yet, and the world is before him to choose, 
but I risk the prophecy that his name will be handed down to poster- 
ity as a "shining light," by which they may find the jvath which leads 
to honor and renown — coequal, if not surpassing, the splendid record 



6o 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



his father left to him to emulate and to the Commonwealth to cherish 
among its sacred archives. 

John Young Brown, the brilliant orator and statesman, is his 
brother-in-law, having married his sister, Miss Rebecca Hart Dixon, 
a most charming and accomplished lady. 

Dr. Archibald Dixon, the distinguished i)hysician, now resident in 
Henderson, is brother to the gentleman whose many noble qualities I 
delight to record. His great-grandfather, Henry Dixon, was a colonel 
in the revolutionary army, and he is named in honorable memory of 
him. Henry Dixon, the soldier, fought at the battle of Camden with 
such gallantry that in the report of the general commanding he 
received distinguished mention. He fell covered with glory at the 
battle of Eutaw Springs, which was fought in 1781 on the banks of 
the small affluent of the Santee river from which it took its title — a 
title that will go "sounding down the ages" in attestation of the hero- 
ism and valor of those who bartered life for the independence and 
liberty of their country and their descendants. 

So is it that the noble names of those who have served their native 
land and the Commonwealth to which they individually belonged are 
preserved, and the review of their valorous deeds ever inspires emulous 
regard in those on whose shoulders their mantles of honor have 
descended. 

Henry C. Dixon will add green leaves to the wreaths of laurel and 
bay that crown the column of fame erected to the "Dixon" family, 
and his friends expect as much of him. 

He is dignified and urbane in manner, full of wit and humor — 
"the life of the "goodlie companie" wherever it be assembled. He 
has dark hair and expressive dark eyes. He wears a moustache, but 
dispenses with other hirsute adornment. If the quotation be accept- 
able because applicable, one might say of him, in the language of the 
poet — 

"None know liim but to love him, 
None name him but to praise." 
He is unmarried. 




GENERAL BASIL W. DUKE. 



The name of the distinguished gentleman which graces the head of 
this brief sketch vividly recalls the chaotic period of twenty-four years 
ago, when the rolling drum and ear-piercing fife, with no uncertain 
sounds, were calling the brave men of the North and South to arms, 
that they might fight for "God and their native land." Alas! for 
those by-gone days, when partisan excitement culminated at a degree 
of intensity of opinion and principle which was never equaled in this 
country nor surpassed in any other! What a waste and wreck of peace 
and happiness seems that other time seen by the light of to-day ! Then 
the tramp of the soldier was heard in every city and hamlet in the 
Union, and everywhere there was the wailing and weeping, the pangs 
of parting, and the dread of impending disaster consequent upon the 
disruption of home ties and desolated hearth-stones. The valiant 
fathers, sons, brothers, and lovers went away as go the waves that have 
curled and crept upon the shining beach when they glide into the cur- 
rent which sweeps boldly on to the fathomless depths of sea, never 
again to return upon its course. The mothers, daughters, sisters, and 

(61) 



62 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

sweethearts kept watch and ward at home, oftentniies as do the look- 
ers-on among the crags who see ships go to wreck upon a stormy ocean, 
yet are powerless to shield or save. But, despite these sad thoughts, 
we must admit the salient truth that war, even though its course is 
marked by devastation, is a great civilizer. The greatest fruit of our 
internecine strife is the present development of the South, its increas- 
ing wealth, Its rapidly-growing population and prosperity, and the con- 
sequent disappearance of certain unseemly peculiarities which once 
marred its beauty, even as spots upon the sun's disc mar its splendor. 
There is no reason now why those who love the South should not antici- 
pate for it a future of brillance not heretofore conceived by the American 
people. However, it was not to discuss the political or social aspect 
of the country that I took up my pen, but to pronounce a fitting eulogy 
upon a brave and efficient officer, in so far as such eulogy could be 
pronounced in a biographical sketch so brief as I design each of my 
papers upon prominent Kentuckians to be. 

Basil W. Duke is the son of Nathaniel Wilson Duke and Mary 
Pickett Curry, who was a Virginian. His father was a native of Mason 
county, Ky. He was a naval officer by education and profession, 
having served in that department of American service from 1825 to 
the time of his death, which occurred in 1S52. 

The subject of this sketch was born in the county of Scott on the 
28th day of May, 1837. He was educated partly in Georgetown and 
partly at Centre College, completing his course in 1S54. Immediately 
thereafter he entered upon the study of the law with Judge Robertson, 
of Lexington, Ky. , who was conceded to be the ablest jurist Kentucky 
had ever furnished to the bench. In 1856, Mr. Duke completed his 
law course and removed to St. Louis, where he began the practice of 
his profession. When the tocsin of war beat its wild alarums he 
joined the State troops, with the rank of captain. In June, 1861, he 
returned to Kentucky and married Miss Henrietta H. Morgan, the 
sister of General John H. Morgan, whose fame is the synonym of 
chivalry, and whose brilliant deeds as a cavalier rival those of a Bay- 
ard or a Knight of King Arthur's Table Round. Subsequent to his 
marriage, he set out for the South and joined the Confederate army at 
Bowling Green, Ky. In October, 1861, he was chosen adjutant of 
Morgan's squadron, and served with that rank until June, 1862, when, 
upon the organization of the Second Regiment of Kentucky Cavalry, 
John Morgan was, by concession, made the colonel, and Duke lieu- 
tenant-colonel. In October following, Colonel Morgan was promoted 
to the rank of brigadier-general, and Lieutenant-Colonel Duke was 
promoted to the colonelcy of the finest cavalry regiment in the Con- 



GENERAL BASIL W. DUKE. 63 

federate army. Several times, while leading this splendid body of men, 
he was wounded. His power of physical endurance, through heat or 
cold, never faltering or knowing dread, was at once the pride and 
wonder of his regiment, composed of the wealthiest and knightliest 
sons of Kentucky. He may not have known it, but the soldiers of 
his command gave him the sobriquet of "The Little Whalebone." 
His efificieney and endurance was their constant boast. During the 
campaigns of 1862 and 1863 he wrote a book of tactics, entitled 
"Duke's Cavalry Drills," showing the versatility of his mind and his 
remarkable powers of application, allied with indomitable will and 
unflagging industrv. 

On the 4th of September, 1864, General Morgan was killed, and 
Colonel Duke was promoted to the rank of l)rigadier-general, his 
commission dating from that sad day. He held the position to the 
close of the war. On the 10th day of May, 1865, General Duke 
surrendered his command at Washington, Ga., having been assigned 
the duty of escorting President Davis and the portable treasury of 
the Confederate States to that point. After the close of the war Gen- 
eral Duke returned to Kentucky, making his home in Lexington. 
There he wrote the '' History of Morgan and his Cavalry." He has 
contributed many valuable and interesting articles to the popular mag- 
azines of the day, clearly establishing his right to be ranked among 
the ablest of the literati. His talents are varied, and these, combined 
with his good common sense, enable him to adapt himself to any 
sphere of life and to be an ornament everywhere he appears. In 
March, 1868, he removed to Louisville (his present home) and entered 
upon the practice of law. In August, 1869, he was elected from the 
city to the Legislature ; and after serving one session with great credit 
to his constituents and to himself, the Congress of the United States 
refused to remove his disabilities. Learning this, he immediately 
resigned his seat, and returning to his office resumed the practice of 
law. In August, 1875, ^'i^ter an excited and hotly-contested canvass 
with George Wm. Caruth and Hon. Nat Robertson, of Shelby county, 
both men of eminent ability and lawyers of high reputation, he was 
elected^ Commonwealth's attorney of the Louisville district, which 
position he filled for five years with the most gratifying success. It 
was the universal comment of the bar that he was the fairest pros- 
ecutor who had ever filled the position. He never went outside the 
proof to convict any one, but his very fairness and his close elucida- 
tion of facts made him dangerous to the law-breakers. At the present 
time the general is the attorney of several railroad companies, and is 
most admirably adapted to the position of controlling great railroad 



64 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



systems and gathering together the network of their crossing and 
recrossing as easily as the fair hand of a lady meshes her lace-making. 
He controls men with the same ease and grace as that same illustrative 
lady might show in wielding a fine ivory fan upon a state occasion. 
His manner is dignified and deferential. His figure is slight, his hair 
brown, his moustache unique, and his eyes are piercing and black as 
ebony. He is modest and unassuming, claiming nothing, wearing the 
honors thrust upon him with becoming dignity. To enter more fully 
than I have done into the genealogy of this distinguished gentleman 
would bring a long array of State names, for he is allied to some of 
the grandest families in the Commonwealth — the Marshalls, the Col- 
stons, the Greens, the Warrens, the Picketts, and hosts of others. 
His private life is peculiarly happy, the domestic side of his character 
being even more admirable than his public one. He has an inter- 
esting wife and several children, one daughter (Miss Currie) being 
especially distinguished fur her brilliance and delicate execution as a 
violinist. 









JUDGE FONTAINE T. FOX. 



Judge Fontaine T. Fox, of the city of Louisville, is the fourth son 
of the venerable Judge Fontaine Fox, of Danville, Ky. The latter 
gendeman was born in Richmond, Ky., in 1S03. His ancestry were 
Virginians, and his wife was Miss E. J. Hunton, of Charlottesville, 
Va., she claiming that town as the place of her nativity since 1809. 
No one who has the honor of a personal acquaintance with this most 
estimable lady, or wdio knows her by reputation, but acknowledges 
her to be the model of refinement and the accepted type of a Christian 
wife and mother. 

No jurist in the State ranks higher in point of integrity and fin- 
ished attainments in law and literature than does Judge Fox, Sr. A 
more indulgent parent never lived. He has, with the assistance of 
his excellent wife, reared and superbly educated a large family of 
children. A picture of their charming domestic life, if placed on 
canvas for the eyes of the world to see, would be priceless, and the 
object of universal envy. Austerity and the cold and cheerless dig- 
nities that usually hamjjer the affectionate relations between parents 
5 (65) 



66 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

and children never disturbed the harmonies of their lives. He was 
always the familiar companion in their household as she was the idol 
of their heart. When the sons of that household went their devious 
ways amid the tumult and the traffic of the world, home was the 
"Mecca" to which their souls journeyed ever, with unabated enthusi- 
asm and a glowing tenderness of sentiment which sent a thrill of 
pleasure to the hearts of their friends whenever they talked of "mother" 
and "father," or pictured for their delectation the quiet happiness 
that reigned around the domestic hearth. A man may well be par- 
doned for lingering with delight over such a tender theme ! 

Judge Fox, Sr. , is the only survivor of a coterie of distinguished 
Kentuckians born, reared, and educated in the central part of the 
State, who were prominent both at the bar and in politics for half a 
century. Read the brilliant array of names ! Joshua F. Bell, Thomas 
E. Bramlette, John B. Thompson, Beriah Magoffin, and George Dun- 
lap. Whenever either or any one of these gentlemen was announced 
for a speech at the bar or from the hustings in any county in the State, 
it was sufficient to insure a rousing crowd who never failed to dis- 
perse, after the intellectual treat was over, shouting aloud their 
enthusiastic applause. 

Ah ! those by-gone times and those dead-and-gone orators ! They 
were not, as politicans of to-day, taken from the pavement or from 
the shops and made the leaders of "rings" and "cliques." Their 
knowledge was imbibed in the old schools of perfection, and their 
oratory, crisp with the sparkling coruscations of their genius, allied 
with matchless diction and suavity of address, won for them admirers 
and friends wherever men sat under the sound of their voices, and the 
homage paid to their eloquence has been handed down from fathers to 
sons as family traditions. 

Judge Fontaine T. Fox, Jr., was born in the county of Pulaski on 
the nth day of June, 1836. In his early life he was extremely deli- 
cate. He graduated from Centre College in 1855, in the class of 
which Dr. H. H. Allen, of Princeton, Kentucky, was the valedictorian. 
John Young Brown, W. C. P. Breckinridge, and Dr. James Holloway, 
the distinguished surgeon of that name, a resident of this city, were 
all graduates of that same class. From 1855 to 1856, Fontaine Fox, 
Jr., taught school and studied law, never idling away his time, but 
striving steadily onward toward the goal of his ambitious hopes. In 
1866 he received his license and removed to Louisville, where he 
opened an office and began the practice of his profession. In 1S68 
he was elected a member of the Board of Alderman, and served with 
that body from 1868 to 1870. In 1871 he acted as assistant attorney 



JUDGE FONTAINE T. FOX. 67 

for the city of Louisville. In 1S78 he was appointed by Governor 
James B. McCreary, vice-chancellor, which position he filled with 
eminent ability until the time of the regular election to take place, 
when he declined to make a race before the people for the office. 

He is the author of a law book of acknowledged merit upon insur- 
ance. In addition to this erudite volume, he has contributed articles 
upon varied subjects to the leading magazines, and has been quoted in 
the periodicals of England as high authority in pure English literature. 
His pen is facile, as his genius is versatile. 

In 1882 Judge Fox was married to Miss Mary Barton, the accom- 
plished daughter of Prof. S. S. Barton, who taught the Greek and 
Latin languages and Belles Lettres at Center College during the time 
the judge was a student at that famous institution. One child, a 
lovely boy, has been given to Judge and Mrs. Fox to bless their 
marriage, and to stimulate them to win laurels for him in the great 
battle of life. Gentle, affectionate, intellectual, and refined, their 
domestic life can but repeat the happiness Judge Fox, to the writer's 
knowledge, enjoyed in his boyhood's home. 

In 1885 Judge Fox was nominated on the Prohibition ticket for 
the office of State treasurer, and by his active canvass and classic 
speeches (which would have charmed the ears of Pittacus himself!), 
made in various portions of the Commonwealth, he received the 
largest vote of any man who has ever run upon that ticket in Ken- 
tucky — a ticket which is fast winning favor even in a corn-cracking 
State, which has probably manufactured more whisky in proportion to 
its population than any other State in the Union. For twenty years it 
has been a boasted product with Kentuckians, but the judge never 
"smiles" with them in their boast. 

In personal appearance he is the thoughtful, grave student. Ex- 
tremely neat in his attire, of bland address and pleasant voice, he is 
at all times the thoroughbred gentleman. His friends are many, and 
if he has faults they are so few that even the censorious forget to 
count them. 




GENERAL PARKER W. HARDIN. 



To speak or write of one to whom we are endeared by association 
or relationshi}) is to do so con ainore. My self-appointed task — to add 
my mite of praise to the universal voice that cries "Evoe" to the dis- 
tinguished men who perpetuate the fame of Kentucky in the nation — 
becomes a delight when I undertake to render a biographical sketch 
of General Parker W. Hardin. The tie of relationship and the bond 
of association at the bar and in society have endeared the name and 
the wearer of it to my heart for many a year. And my intimate 
knowledge of the charm of his domestic life enhances my apprecia- 
tion of the man and the gentleman. 

General Parker W. Hardin was born in the county of Adair, State 
of Kentucky, June 3, 1841. He is the second son of Parker C. 
Hardin and Miss Carolina Watkins. The names of his parents are 
both well and favorably known throughout the State and the Union. 
'I'he lady's ancestors emigrated to Kentucky as early as 1776, and the 
name of " Hardin" is part and parcel of Kentucky, from border land 
to border land. The annals of the State teem with recitals of the 

(68) 



GENERAL PARK.ER \V. HARDIN. 69 

dash and bravery of the Hardins, and a full quota of the splendor 
conferred on the State by the brilliance of her sons belongs "by 
rights" to this noble race of people. 

The Hardin family — that is, the most prominent branch of it — • 
settled in Washington county in the year 17S6. The legend of the 
family runs, that after the massacre of St. Bartholomew three broth- 
ers named Hardin, being Huguenots, emigrated from France to Can- 
ada; but the climate being too severe for them, they left that country 
and again emigrated, this time to Virginia, at that })eriod a British 
colony and not a State. At this point two of them settled, and the 
third continued his journey southward until he reached South Caro- 
lina, at which point he also settled. 

Martin Hardin, a descendant of one of these three brothers, in 
the year 1765 moved from Fauquier county, Va. , and found his i)er- 
manent abiding place at ''George's Creek," on the Monongahela 
river. He married and was the father of seven children, three sons 
and four daughters. They were all born between the years 1740 and 
1760, and in 1786 and 17S7 they emigrated to Kentucky, with the 
exception of one sister, Miss Rosanna, who afterward became Mrs. 
John McMahon. Reaching this State, they settled within a radius of 
ten miles, near where the town of Springfield, Washington county, 
Ky., now stands, and stretching away toward Lebanon, Ky. , upon 
their own land; and for more than sixty years they or their descend- 
ants occupied it. In 1S49 tbe youngest son, Martin Hardin, died, at 
the advanced age of ninety-two years. He was the last survivor of 
that family of brothers and sisters. Another of the emigrants, who 
was but four years of age at the time of emigration, lived to be over 
ninety-two. He was honored and beloved by all who knew him. He 
was the venerable Mark Hardin, of Shelbyville, Ky. 

Colonel John Hardin, the second of the above-mentioned sons — 
and the father of Mark — was killed in 1792, in North-western Ohio, 
by the Indians. He was proceeding to their towns under a flag of truce 
to offer them a treaty of peace, sent so to do by General George 
Washington, then President of the United States. He was held in 
the highest esteem by General Daniel Morgan. A warm personal 
friendship existed between them. More than once he was the subject 
of complimentary reports by superior officers in the army. It is said 
that he was in almost every engagement fought with the Indians after 
he settled in Kentucky. He was a man of the kindest and gentlest 
heart, and his manners at all times dignified and unassuming. His 
will was inflexible. He was a devout Christian, being a member of 
the Methodist Church. A town was laid out on the spot where he 



70 REPRESENTATIVE CORX-CRACKERS. 

was SO treacherously killed. This was done in 1840, on the State 
road from Piqua, through Wapakonetta, and was named "Hardin" 
in his memory. He left three sons and three daughters, several of 
whom became distinguished or whose descendants were distinguished. 

General Martin D. Hardin, one of his sons, was one of Kentucky's 
great men. He was a man of marked character and brilliant ability. 
He was in war a brave, vigilant, and efficient officer. He was secre- 
tary of State under Governor Isaac Shelby, 1812 to 1816; was appointed 
by Governor Gabriel Slaughter to fill a vacancy in the United States 
Senate, serving one session, 1816 and 181 7. He died at Frankfort, 
Ky., October 8, 1823, aged forty-three. Colonel John J. Hardin, an 
ex-member of Congress from Illinois, 1843 to 1845, was his son. He 
fell in the battle of Buena Vista, in Mexico, February 23, 1847. 

Miss Sallie Hardin, one of Colonel John Hardin's daughters, 
became the wife of Rev. Barnabas McHenry, and was the ancestor of 
a distinguished family. Miss Lydia Hardin was the wife of Charles 
Wickliffe and the mother of Robert Wickliffe, of Lexington, Charles 
A. Wickliffe, of Bardstown, Maxwell Wickliffe, Nathaniel Wickliffe, 
and five daughters, all of whom raised families of useful and influ- 
ential citizens. 

Miss Sarah Hardin married her cousin, Ben Hardin, and was the 
mother of the great lawyer, Ben Hardin (who was born in Westmore- 
land county, Pa., in the year 1784, and died in Nelson county, 
Ky., Sej)tember 24, 1852, at the age of sixty-eight years), of Warren 
Hardin, Mrs. Rosanna McElroy, and three other daughters, who also 
reared useful and prominent families. 

The descendants of this great family are scattered all over the 
State, and by marriages and intermarriages they are connected with 
many of the greatest people in the Commonwealth. The Wickliffes, 
Helms, McHenrys, Hammonds, Colers, McKlroys, Tobins, Barnetts, 
Chinns, Rays, Ewings, Caldwells, Bufords, Raileys, Fields, Torrences, 
Yagers, Roberts, all trace back with pardonable jjride their splendid 
lineage to the Huguenot brothers who fled from persecution to Vir- 
ginia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and thence to the wilds of Ken- 
tucky. A great people they are! And they and their descendants 
make their mark on every community in which they settle. A county 
in this State is named for them, another in Ohio, and a town in Shelby 
county of that State covers the very spot where General Hardin was 
murdered while on his peace mission. 

Benjamin Hardin, one of the greatest lawyers Kentucky ever i)ro- 
duced, was the son of Sarah and Ben Hardin (cousins). He was edu- 
cated in Springfield, Ky. , studied law in Richmond, Ky., with Martin 



GENERAL PARKER \V. HARDIN. 71- 

D. Hardin, in 1804, and witli Justice Felix Grundy at Bardstown, 
Ky., in 1S05. In 1S06 he niirried Miss Barbour, of Elizabethtown, 
Ky. Two years later he moved to Bardstown, which was ever after- 
ward his place of residence until his death. He was an indefatigable 
practitioner, and amassed a handsome fortune. It is said he was on 
one side or the other of every seriously-contested case in the State. 
He possessed a most extraordinary memory, and it was cultivated to 
a wonderful degree. As a speaker he was famous for his perspicuity 
and his clear array of facts. His force lay in these. Allied to them 
was an air of animation which delighted his listeners and commanded 
attention, even though not always carrying their conviction. He 
served his county in the House of Representatives in iSio, 181 1, 
1824, and 1 82 5, and in the Senate from 1828 to 1832. He repre- 
sented his district in Congress from 1815 to 181 7, from 1819 to 1823, 
and from 1833 to 1837. From September, 1844, 10 February, 1847, 
he was secretary of State under Governor Owsley, with whom he had 
one 6f the most heated controversies which has ever taken place 
among the public men of this State. It is said that his speech before 
the Senate Committee on Executive Affairs in January. 1847, ^^^s 
never excelled for length, power, and keenness. He was one of the 
convention that formed the present Constitution of Kentucky. This 
was in 1S49 ^^"^d 1850, and was his last jjublic service. In the summer of 
1852 he was crippled by falling from his horse, and in Sejjtember of 
that same year he died, aged sixty-eight. In person he was tall and 
commanding. He had splendid eyes, and a face which beamed with 
intelligence. In politics he was a Whig. Parker C. Hardin, the 
father of the subject of this sketch, was in the Senate from Adair from 
1840 to 1848, and was acknowledged to be one of the foremost men 
of his time in point of ability and strict adherence to party and to 
principle. He was pious and gentle as a woman. And above all 
public emoluments he desired that his sons should be good men and 
good citizens. 

Parker \V. Hardin — he of whom I write — was educated in the 
schools of Adair county. He studied law with his father, and while 
still a student he fell a victim to the wiles of Cupid, or — as he himself 
gallantly and poetically expressed it not long since, when speaking of 
his wife — he "culled the fairest flower that ever grew on the peaks of 
the Cumberland I " He married Miss Mary E. Sallee, of Wayne 
county, Ky. , one of the most charming and accomplished ladies in the 
world, and not a whit less lovely than she is gifted. This was in 
December, 1864. A year later, 1865, he was admitted to the bar at 
Columbia, the county-seat of .A.dair. He immediately began the prac- 



72 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

tice of his profession. He was full of promise and ability, and was 
the object of pride and ambition among his relatives and friends, and 
the latter, because of his grace and good breeding and noble heart, 
were counted by legion. He is the brother of Judge Charles A. 
Hardin, who married Miss Jenny Magoffin, the daughter of Colonel 
Ebenezer Magoffin, of Missouri, one of the knightliest spirits ever 
shrined in human form. With Judge Hardin, some time after his 
happy marriage with Miss Sallee, General Hardin formed a partner- 
ship in the practice of law, in the town of Harrodsburg, Mercer county, 
Ky. , and he immediately took position at the bar in Central Ken- 
tucky second to none. The Hardins are like the Marshalls — born 
lawyers — and to these two families Kentucky owes much of her legal 
precedence in the learned science which governs her sovereigns. 
Another brother of General Hardin is Benjamin Lee Hardin, also a 
lawyer and resident of Harrodsburg, Mercer county, Ky. This gen- 
tleman is widely and favorably known throughout Kentucky for his 
versatility of talent and his genial disposition. He married Miss Sue 
Cardwell, a kind-hearted, gracious, and estimable lady, daughter of 
Captain John Cafdwell, of the well known Kentucky family of that 
name, who as soldiers and citizens confer honor on their name and 
their State. 

In the May convention of 1879 Parker W. Hardin was nominated 
for attorney -general of Kentucky. Nomination is equivalent to 
election. He served his State nobly in that capacity for four years. 
Was renominated at the Democratic convention which convened in the 
city of Louisville in May. 1883, and is now a candidate for the third 
term, and if elected will bear himself as hitherto with unimpeachable 
honor and unsullied dignity. He is a man of mark and fine ability. 
He has represented the State with great credit to himself and to it 
before the Supreme Court of the United States, and his name was con- 
spicuous in many of the leading criminal cases in the Commonwealth 
while he practiced at the Mercer bar. In person he is distingue, 
being tall and well-formed, with a fine, soldierly bearing. His face 
beams with intellectuality. 

The Hardins of the present generation are congenital Kentuckians, 
possessing all the fervor of oratory and the love of liberty which dis- 
tinguished the adventurous pioneer who felled the trees and opened up 
the way for the advancement of civilization in what was then the most 
Western country of this great republic. 




HON. THOMAS F. HARGIS. 



The people of Breathitt county may be proud of the fact that tlieir 
county is named in memory of a governor of Kentucky — John 
Breathitt — whose success, spirit, and popularity were of that intense 
character that it has l)een averred that but for his untimely death (he 
died at the early age of forty-seven) there was scarcely an honor within 
the gift of the people but he would have obtained it. They may be 
proud of their native hills and rich valleys, proud of their coal and 
iron ore, proud of their advancement and prosperity, but they have 
need to "plume" themselves upon nothing with more sincerity than 
the fact that Hon. Thomas F. Hargis was born in their midst; and 
that amid all his successes and his ever-increasing popularity, he loves 
to remember that Breathitt is his native county — that Avith it must for- 
ever be associated his tenderest and most endearing recollections of 
the past. 

Thomas F. Hargis is the son of John Hargis, Esq., and his mother's 
maiden name was Miss Elizabeth Weddington. Her people were of 
German extraction — excellent, progressive, and endowed with marked 

(73) 



74 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACRERS. 

ability. Miss Weddington was American by birth, having been born 
in Russell county, Va. His father, John Hargis, Esq., came to Ken- 
tucky from Washington county, Va., as early as 1823. He was a man 
of strong character, marked spirit and independence, and took position 
with the leading men of his day and time. He was a member of the 
convention which framed the present Constitution of Kentucky, 
assembled at Frankfort, October i, 1S49. He represented the counties 
of Breathitt and Morgan. He also represented Breathitt county in 
the years 1855, 1856, and 1857 in the House of Representatives of 
the State Legislature. He was a man highly esteemed for his intelli- 
gence and integrity, and the ability, zeal, and firmness with which he 
maintained his principles and adhered to his opinions. His son, 
Thomas F. Hargis, was born in the quiet hamlet of Jackson (named 
in honor of Andrew Jackson), situated in Breathitt county. The 
date of his birth on the family record reads, 24th day of June, 1842. 
He was reared in his native county, and something of the spirit and 
strength, capability and resource of it seems to have taken root and 
flourished in his sturdy, enduring, but affable and sunny disposition. 

Breathitt county abounds in picturesque scenery, which would 
inspire the true artist to behold, and also lend a theme to the poet. 
The scenery is fine, the waters are pure, and the air is redolent with 
the perfume of wild flowers growing with profuse luxuriance on those 
lofty mountain peaks. 

Here in his native county he was educated, even then giving 
promise of future eminence by his remarkable powers of application, 
and his aspiring mind, which was never .satisfied with anything less 
than his " level best" in his pursuit after knowledge. In that charm- 
ing time of the year 1861, 

Wlien llie willow shoots forth a green feather, 
And the buttercup burns in the grass, 

The fires of youthful ardor began to glow with fervid heat in his heart, 
His dreams early and late were all of war — and only war. The song 
of the Lurlie among the rocks could not have ecpialed in harmony the 
sounds of the ear-piercing fife and the martial music of the drum, 
calling the sons of the South to arms to battle for God and the right. 
At least could not have etiualed them when regarded from the stand- 
point of his youthful judgment. So it was that he joined the Fifth 
Kentucky Infantry, commanded by General John S. Williams, in 
Western Virginia, in (General Humphrey Marshall's Brigade. From 
the time he "buckled on his armor" to the close of the war he was 
constantly in the service of the Confederacy. He was promoted to 
the position of rantain of r;r, alrv at the time that he was wounded at 



HON. THOMAS F. HARGIS. 75 

Milford, in the Valley of Virginia, in November, 1S64. He was 
captured and imprisoned at Johnston's Island. He was peculiarly 
unfortunate in this regard, having been captured four timer But he 
was equally fortunate about procuring his liberty, for he every time 
succeeded in escaping or being exchanged. He was brave and daring, 
and to-day bears several meritorious scars upon his person which he 
gained by gallant conduct under fire and scourging sword. 

But after the long struggle was over, and peace was restored to 
our suffering country, many of those who had wandered away from 
old familiar places returned. Among them was Thomas F. Hargis. 
He applied himself to the study of law, and in April, 1866, he 
received his license to practice his profession. He entered upon the 
same in Rowan county, Ky., but in 1868 he removed to Carlisle, 
Nicholas county, Ky., where a finer o])ening awaited his energy and 
his ambition, and where the culmination of his heart's desire was 
reached, for in the month of June — the glorious time of sunshine and 
roses — on the 23d day of said month in the following year, 1869, he 
was married to Miss Lucy Stewart Norvell, of Carlisle, Ky. From this 
auspicious moment fortune and honor seemed to have clasped hands 
and united energies in their desire to shower benefits on him. 

At an especial election for county judge held in September, 1869, 
he was elected to fill the position, which he did with such credit to 
himself and satisfaction to the general public that in August, 1870, he 
was re-elected to the same position without opposition. In 1S71 he 
was nominated by a Democratic convention, and at the August election, 
1 87 1, he was chosen senator from the Thirtieth district, defeating 
Judge James W. Anderson by four hundred and fifty-nine majority. 
He served four years in that position, winning many friends in his 
public career, and endearing himself to his constituents by a manly 
and conscientious adherence to their interests. 

At the convention held for the purpose of nominating a criminal 
and equity judge of the Fourteenth Judicial district, Mr. Hargis was 
nominated unanimously, and was elected in March, 1878, over Colonel 
John L. Hickman (Republican), of Maysville, Ky., by twenty-two 
hundred and fourteen majority. He filled this position also with great 
credit to himself until April 24, 1879, when he received the nomination 
at Owingsville, Ky., as the choice of the Democratic party for the 
Court of Appeals for the First Appellate district, and on the 12th day 
of May, 1879, he was elected over the present incumbent. Judge W. 
H. Holt, of Mount Sterling, Ky., and this by the handsome majority 
of thirty-five hundred and fifty-five votes. He served on the bench of 
the Court of Appeals until the ist day of September, 1884. 



76 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



At the close of his term Judge Hargis removed to Louisville, Ky., 
and began the practice of law, having declined to run for re-election 
to the arduous position he had so creditably filled. His opinions 
while on the Supreme Bench of Kentucky met with the highest praise 
among attorneys in and out of the State. He has formed here a part- 
nership with Captain George M. Eastin, than whom lives not on earth 
a more gallant and gracious gentleman, and the firm name is "Hargis 
& Eastin," and I venture the prophecy that it will become a power at 
the bar throughout the Commonwealth, for as practitioners of the law 
both gentlemen have a profound and thorough knowledge of its prin- 
ciples, and the most approved forms of practice, and as a consequence 
are bound to hold their eminence in the profession and add new 
laurels to their fame as clear, logical, and forcible practitioners. 

Judge Hargis is candid and honest, bold and fearless, a ready 
debater, an able lawyer, and exhaustive thinker. His intellect is of a 
high order. In every relation of life, by firm and inflexible integrity, 
he has won the approbation of his fellowmen, and the warm and sin- 
cere affection of his many personal friends. He is a self-made man, 
and is one of the finest examples of the ennobling tendency of Repub- 
lican institutions, and an encouragement to all meritorious and aspiring 
young men in America. 

His marriage has been a peculiarly happy one, he declaring that his 
wife has indeed been " the star of his destiny," since he dates all his 
successes in public life from their wedding day. They have five chil- 
dren, four girls and one boy, who is named after our distinguished 
citizen, Robert WooUey, Esq. 




•3ifi>?) 



<s^.et. 




HON. THOMAS H. HAYS. 



Thomas H. Hays is the oldest son of William H. Hays, Esq., and 
his mother's maiden name was Miss Nancy Neil. Their ancestry 
were among the earliest setders who came to this their nadve State — 
Kentucky. That they were endowed with the noblest attributes to 
which the human heart can fall heir is evidenced by the character and 
principles of their son, Thomas H. Hays, whose popularity and manly 
excellence in every way endear him to associates and friends. Mr. 
Hays was born in Hardin county. Ky., on the 6th of October, 1837. 
He matriculated at St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Ky., which was 
established by the Legislature of Virginia in 17S8, and was formerly 
known as Bairdstown, having been named after David Baird, Esq., 
one of the original proprietors of the one hundred acres on which the 
town was laid off. The county was named in honor of Governor 
Thomas Nelson, who was a distinguished Virginian, and one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

But, as the French say : Revenons a nos nioiUoJis. 

(77) 



78 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

Thomas H. Hays, in 1857, graduated from that noble and historic 
CathoUc institution of learning, St. Joseph's College, after which he 
immediately began the study of law with Governor John L. Helm 
and J. \V, Hays. In the early part of 186 1 he was licensed to prac- 
tice the legal profession, and entered upon a cojjartnershij) with Will- 
iam Wilson, Esq., a lawyer of great eminence and ability in Elizabeth- 
town, Ky. 

Before the civil war began Mr. Hays was senior major of the Salt 
River Batallion of the State militia. Early in 1861 he joined the 
Southern army, and was commissioned major in the regular service 
of the Confederate States Army, being pronijjtly assigned to duty with 
the Sixth Confederate regiment of infantry, commanded then by 
General Josci)h H. Lewis. Major Hays served with his regiment 
for twelve months, participating in the arduous campaign from Ken- 
tucky to Shiloh. He captured the first train of cars in Kentucky 
after the war began. This was done on the 17th day of September, 
1861, at Elizabethtown, Hardin county, Ky. 

After the battle of Shiloh, Major Hays was ordered to report to 
General William Preston, then in command of Vicksburg, Miss., 
and before the battle of Chickamauga he was ordered to report to 
General Ben Hardin Helm, who was his brother-in-law, and by Gen- 
eral Helm he was assigned to duty as the inspector-general of his 
brigade. He was with General Helm when he fell at the head of 
this same splendid brigade on Chickamauga's blood-stained field, 
covered with martial glory, the grandest exemplar to the future sol- 
diery of our State, as to how a Kentuckian can die for love of coun- 
try and in defense of his national principles and his rights as a free- 
born American citizen. 

In 1864 Major Hays was assigned to duty with General Joseph 
E. Johnston, then stationed at Dalton, Ga. He served with General 
Johnston as assistant adjutant-general, and filled this position in the 
general's retreat back to Adanta, Ga., contesting with the foe for 
every inch of Southern soil as he retired, and dying, in spirit, a thou- 
sand deaths because compelled to retreat. Unexpectedly, upon reach- 
ing Atlanta, General Johnston was superseded by General John B. 
Hood, on the 19th day of July, 1864, who was a soldier of distin- 
guished ])resence and fine ability, who had by his valor, exhibited on 
many a hard fought-field, won the confidence of the President, Mr. 
Jefferson Davis. The removal of General Joseph E. Johnston, a 
splendid officer, a graduate of West Point in 1829, and a superb 
tactician, created almost a ])anic of surprise among the soldiers; but 
the panic did not ( hange the face of the fact that this gallant chieftain 



HON. 'IHOMAS H. HAYS. 79 

was superseded, and that General John B. Hood, who was a Kentuck- 
ian and a West Pointer, class of 1853, was duly inducted into the high 
and responsible position General Johnston had so nobly and hon- 
orably filled. 

Among officers of rank, and universally among the soldiers of the 
South, throughout the Confederacy Mr. Uavis received general invec- 
tive for making the change in commanding generals at so inopportune 
a moment for the life of the Confederacy, and for the fulfillment ot 
General Johnston's plans. He had made such a gallant resistance; he 
was such a magnificent officer, and the odds had been so oxcrwhelm- 
ing in the retreat from Dalton to Atlanta! And to be thus thwarted 
in all his noble ])lans on the eve of their fulfillment must, indeed, have 
brimmed the cup of bitterness for General Johnston. But who heard 
him murmur against the august decree of su[)erior power? Not a man 
living or dead could testify to his rebelli(jn against " the throne, or the 
p iwers that lay behind the throne." 

Suffice it to say that the sudden change in commanding generals 
created such consternation amid the troops that it necessitated a 
strategic movement on the ])art of General Hood to restore confi- 
dence. He at once took up the line of march to Nashville, Tenn., 
on September i, 1864, but the scarcity of commissaries and the con- 
dition of the country through which he had to pass caused tlela\-, 
and thus enabled the enemy to re-enforc;e (General Thomas, who was 
in command at that point. 

In the autumn of 1864, General Hood, after trials and tribu- 
lations and foot-sore marches over a country sterile of products, 
because of the invasion of the enemy, met General Thomas in battle 
at Franklin, Tenn., on the 30th of November, 1864; and on the 
15th and 1 6th of December following, same year, the l)atllc of Nash- 
ville was fought. Never was such heroism exhibited by man as was 
there displayed by the soldiers of the Confederate army, unless, indeed, 
it was equaled by Napoleon's soldiers of France, in their weather-beaten 
marches to Moscow, or their loyalty and desj^air at Waterloo. 

They forgot toilsome advances, exposure, and privation ; they 
remembered only that they were Southern soldiers fighting for a noble 
cause. With flushed faces and glowing eyes that shone with the 
feverish dream of moving northward on the enemy, these brave fel- 
lows did devoir for God and right ; but they failed. ' ' They fought like 
brave men, long and well — they fell — bleeding at every vein ; " but 
endurance, chivalry, daring, availed them nothing. General Hood 
sustained irretrievable defeat, losing many of his most trusted and 
chivalrous officers, among them the immortal Cleburne, of Ar- 



8o , REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

kansas. Major Hays was with General Hood as an assistant staff 
officer, and rendered valuable service to him in his campaign. The 
war in the West, and south of the Mississippi river, was virtually 
closed with the battle of Franklin, Tenn. 

After the surrender of the Confederacy, Major Hays returned to his 
native county and entered upon the most honorable and independent 
of all pursuits known to civiHzed men — that of a Kentucky farmer. 

In August, 1S69, however, he was elected to the Legislature from 
Hardin county, and the history of the Commonwealth will bear me 
out when I say that the Kentucky Legislature of 1869 ^^'^s the ablest 
General Assembly that ever convened at Frankfort. Record cites 
their honorable names, but they at once placed Kentucky upon a 
prosperous financial basis. 

A sharp contrast this to the Legislature of 1886, which finds riot 
and confusion in the State borders, and the Treasury minus a dollar 
with which to pay for the services of her legislators. However, as 
the Latm phrase goes : " Teinpora mutantur, et nos tnutaviur in il/is." 

Li 1S71 Major Hays was made Superintendent of the Pullman 
Palace Car Company, and he has been chiefly instrumental in obtain- 
ing for it advantageous legislation along its almost illimitable lines 
over the country. \r\ 1881 he was chosen second vice-president, which 
honorable position he continues to hold with acceptability to the 
directory of the company. He is one of the projectors of the Ver- 
sailles & Midway Railroad Company, of which he is the vice-president. 

Until now I have ommitted to say that, in 1861, amid the excite- 
ments of the civil war, Major Hays was married to Miss Sarah Har- 
din Helm (now deceased), the daughter of Governor John L. Helm, 
of Elizabethtown, Ky., also deceased. They had born to them 
two children, Lucinda Hardin Hays and Nancy Neil Hays. 

In 187 1 Major Hays was married to Miss Georgia T. Broughton, 
of Lagrange, Ga., the daughter of Judge Edward Broughton, of that 
State. They have six daughters, who, on State occasions, make the 
home place look like a fairy garden. 

In 1880 Major Hays was chosen by a Democratic convention the 
nominee for Congress from this, the Fifth Congressional District, but 
was defeated by the Hon. Albert S. Willis, who ran as an independent 
candidate. The nomination came too late to insure thorough organiza- 
tion and success, and as a consecjuence, Major Hays sustained defeat. 

Major Hays is a gentleman of the old school, and it is always a 
pleasure to the herald to place upon record the nobility and valor of 
those wlio add honor and glory to Kentucky as a State and a Com- 
monwealth of free and enlightened peoi)le. 




HON. JOHN K. HENDRICK. 

"In tlie highways of life, here and there, now and then. 
Amid muslin called ladies and buckram called men. 
One meets, though the race is iiardly called human, 
A man that's a man and a woman that's woman." 

So wrote the poet. William I), (iallagher, expressing a homely 
trtith with the (itiaint and rhythmic elotiuence which characterized the 
emanations of Robert lUirns' genins. 

And they come to my mind today ftill of forceful suggestions m 
connection with the name of the distinguished gentleman which 
graces this number of my sketches of those who uphold Kentucky. 

Hon. John K. Hendrick, of Livingston county, is the only son of 
William H. Hendrick, of Logan county, Ky. He was born on the 
Toth of October, 1849 His mother was Miss Susan Bennett, a sister 
to Judge Bennett, the logician and scholar, who is now a candidate 
for the Court of Appeals, from the First Appellate District, to succeed 
the Hon. Thomas H. Hines, of Warren county, who declines to suc- 
ceed himself on account of ill health, which latter fact of his melan- 
choly physical condition should be a cause of painful and personal 
regret to every man in Kentucky who takes pride in his native State, 
6 (81) 



82 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

for a grander, braver, truer, more chivalrous soul was never shrined 
in human form than is that which looks forth from the kind and gen- 
tle eyes of Thomas H. Hines. 

The parents of Mr. Hendrick were Virginians by l)irth, but came 
to Kentucky at an early day, and first settled in Christian county, 
subsequently removing to the county of Logan, that haven of the 
brave and chivalrous. " Bluegrass " is the indigenous herbage of the 
State; in the same ratio it might be said that cavaliers were the indig- 
enous growth of Logan county, for, added to her historic record in 
the days of the early settlement of the State, during the civil war she 
gave one thousand soldiers to the Confederate army and over five 
hundred to the Federal army, from which data one might conclude 
that, like the men of Roderick Dhu's Scottish clan, who sprang up 
at a sign, a man for every heather plume, she had cavaliers as thick 
in her midst as the feathery herbage which tufted her hills and dales. 
One can not resist the spell of enthusiasm which a knowledge of the 
record of Logan county casts over the contemplative soul. How it 
must inspire her sons and daughters with the emulous spirits of honor 
and goodness I What a glory to claim her as a mother county ! From the 
years 1770 and 177 1, when the "Long Hunters" penetrated the wilder- 
ness, now comprised partially in her borders, down to the present 
time of 1886, over a century, Logan county has contributed great 
men to the nation. Just read her record: Four governors — John 
Breathitt, James T. Morehead, John J. Crittenden, and Charles S. 
Morehead ; four chief-justices — Ninian Edwards, George M. Bibb, 
Ephraim M. Ewing, and Elijah Hise. Five times the chief executive 
chairs of other States have been filled by her sons : Ninian Edwards 
and John McLean to Illinois, Richard K. Call to Florida, Robert 
Crittenden to Arkansas, and Fletcher Stockdale to Texas. Besides 
these, William L. D. Ewing was lieutenant-governor of Illinois. She 
gave one major-general to the United States army, James Boyle ; and 
one surgeon-general to the same, Dr. D. McReynolds; and one 
supreme judge of Mississippi, Joseph E. Davis. All were able, 
accomplished, and efficient ; and in addition to those there were many 
others not less upright, cultured, and principled, who never entered 
the arena of public life. In this grand county then, the subject of 
my sketch was educated at Bethel College, during which term of 
intellectual training he exhibited those characteristics which gave 
promise that he would some day "make his mark in the world." 
In 1867 he began the study of law with his uncle. Judge Bennett, 
and in 1873 he was admitted to the bar in Li\ ingston county, and 
entered upon the ])ractice of his profession. V>y his energy, his stu- 



HON. JOHN K. HENDRICK. ' 83 

dious attention to business, and his uniform good habits, united to his 
various exhibitions of the latent brilhance of which he was master, 
he won the respect and the admiration of the people, and in 1878 he 
was elected county attorney. In 18S2 he was re-elected to the same 
office, and holds it at the present time. He possesses fine oratorical 
power; and his analytic mind renders him a foe to be dreaded by 
those who have given cause for their public arraignment at the bar of 
justice. He is now a candidate for the position of Commonwealth's 
attorney, in the First Judicial District, and the First Congressional 
District also, known in Democratic parlance as the " (Gibraltar dis- 
trict, where Democracy runs high and patriotism never dies." 

Livingston county was established in 179S, out of a ])art of Chris- 
tian county, and named in honor of Robert P. Livingston, the 
distinguished American statesman, who was born in tlie city of New 
York in 1746, studied and practiced law with great success, was a 
member of the first general Congress, and was one of the committee 
which prepared the Declaration of L'ide[)endence; in 1780 was 
appointed secretary of foreign affairs, and throughout the Revolution 
signalized himself by his zeal and efficiency in the cause ; was for 
many years chancellor of his native State, and while occupying that 
position, in the year 1789, on the 30th day of Ai)ril, he administered 
the oath of office, as the first President of the United States, to Gen- 
eral (reorge Washington, on the balcony in the front of the Federal 
Hall, in the presence of both branches of the National Legislature 
and thousands of spectators. In iSoi he was appointed by Presi- 
dent Jefferson Minister to France. He was a general favorite at the 
French capital, and in conjunction with Mr. Monroe conducted the 
treaty which resulted in the cession of Louisiana to the United States. 
He died in 1813. The " old time" people of Livingston county were 
conversant with these historical facts, and did honor to the great man 
by naming their county for him by way of keeping his memory green 
in the hearts of his countrymen. By so doing they gave evidence of 
their appreciation of honor and valor. Their descendants have 
proven themselves worthy of their progenitors, by doing honor to 
another brilliant man, who, if not enabled to display the glorious 
national record of Robert P. Livingston, has proven himself worthy 
the admiration of his family, his friends, and his State. If success 
attends merit, if it is the test of merit, then those who cherish hopes 
of his election to the office to which he aspires will not find them 
"nipped in the bud by an untimely frost." He would reflect addi- 
tional luster over "Jackson's Purchase," and crime and lawlessness 
would hide their uncanny heads before his fearless eyes. 



84 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



It has been said that nature can not lie ; that when she endows 
one of her children with beauty, it is but the index by which one can 
read the goodness of the heart ; it may be that extraneous circum- 
stances sometimes pervert this loveliness from its original atmosphere 
of purity and nobility; but when they are powerless to subvert, then 
truly must the splendor of the soul shine out with the light of the 
morning star. Mr. Hendrick is a man of fine personnel. The stamp 
of intellectual superiority beams from his dark eyes, and displays 
itself in calm self-containment of his facial expression. He has a 
richly-modulated voice, and when he speaks he but enhances that 
charm of intellectuality which wins him hosts of friends. To a 
singer, such a voice means gold; to an orator like John K. Hendrick 
it means ever increasing popularity and power to sway the multitudes. 

It is to be hoped he will not fail of his noble ambition. Ken- 
tucky needs men of ability in all her positions of trust, and the P'irst 
Judicial District in electing him next August will be doing itself honor, 
for John K. Hendrick is a man among many men; unimpeachable 
in character and incorruptible in mind and heart. 





GENERAL FAYETTE HEWITT. 

The present Auditor of Kentucky, General Fayette Hewitt, was 
born in the county of Hardin, State of Kentucky, on the 15th day of 
October, 1832. He is the son of Robert Hewitt and Elizabeth Chas- 
tain. Both father and mother were native Virginians, and both were 
persons of unusual intelligence and accomplishment. Robert Hewitt, 
Esq., the father of Fayette Hewitt, was a professor of languages. He 
was a gentleman of hnished education, and for many years taught 
school "in Elizabethtown, Ky. Fayette was carefully educated by 
him, and was the assistant in the college for ten years. When his 
father died he succeeded him in the position of principal and head 
of the family, on whom his mother and younger brothers were com- 
pelled to look for support; but fully capacitated as he was 10 be a 
preceptor, he had not the inclination to continue in the profession he 
had so long honored with his acceptance. He changed his location 
from Elizabethtown to Washington City, and there found employment 
in the Post-office Department of the United States Government. At 
the commencement of the civil strife, he resigned his position as early 

(85) 



86 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

as the 4th of March, t86i, and then proceeded South, where he was 
retained by the postmaster general to aid in estabUshing the mail 
system of the Confederacy. 

In November, 1861, he was appointed acting adjutant-general, 
and was assigned to duty in the Trans-Mississippi Department of the 
army, where he served efficiently with Generals Holmes and Pike. In 
March, 1863, he was ordered to report for staff duty to General John 
C. Breckinridge, then commanding a division in the Army of Tennes- 
see. Later on he was assigned to duty as the acting adjutant-general 
of the "Orphans' Brigade." This was the Kentucky brigade, which 
was first commanded by General Breckinridge, subsequently by the 
peerless Roger Hanson and Ben Hardin Helm, and afterward by 
General Jo. H. Lewis, now of the Court of Appeals. The title of 
"Orphans' Brigade" was given it because Kentucky was in the Union, 
and the soldiers who were enrolled in it had therefore no mother State 
to furnish them with supplies, to bestow on them the blessed boon and 
comfort of her sympathy, nor yet to receive them when furloughs broke 
happily in upon the irksome monotony of camp life. It was a valiant 
struggle for principle they made — claiming the earth for a bed and the 
star-broidered canopy of heaven for a covering, and counting life tVom 
sunset to sunset, nor looking beyond it. 

General Hewitt, after joining the "Orphans' Brigade," remained 
on duty with it until the termination of the war. He surrendered 
with it on the 7th day of May, 1865, at Washington, Ga., after which 
he returned to Elizabethtown, Ky., and assumed temporary charge of 
a female school. The confinement of such a position was naturally 
objectionable to a man who had been a soldier for four years, and he 
soon abandoned it, beginning the practice of law in 1866 as the part- 
ner of William Wilson, Esq. In September, 1867, he was appointed 
quartermaster general of Kentucky by Governor Helm. He retained 
this position for nine years, under Governors Stevenson and Leslie, 
and Governor McCreary continued him in office during a ])ortion of 
his term, General Hewitt having resigned previous to its close. While 
ser\ing in that capacity, General Hewitt collected from the Federal 
Government over two millions of dollars of Kentucky's war debt 
which other accredited agents of the State had endeavored but fiiiled 
to collect. In 1876, he resigned his position and returned to Eliza- 
bethtown in order to recruit his health, which had become delicate, 
and to rest from the arduous mental labor that had taxed his brain 
for years. 

Not satisfied, however with so quiet a life, in 1879 ^^ became a 
candidate for auditor of the State, and received the nomination over 



GENERAL FAVETTK HEWITT. 87 

Colonel D. Howard Smith, who had served acceptably as Kentucky's 
auditor for twelve years. John A. Williamson was the Republican 
candidate and Henry Potter, Estp, the Greenback candidate for the 
same position. These gentlemen were all defeated. 

In 1883, General Hewitt was re-elected auditor without opposition, 
save that offered in the person of the Republican candidate, Mr. L. 
R. Hawthorn, there being no Greenback candidate. 

Creneral Hewitt is a bachelor, doubtless owing to the fact that his 
life has been such a busy one that he has never had time to get mar- 
ried, although he is universally admired by the fair sex, and the gay- 
est ball or the most brilliant coterie would be willingly abandoned by 
any or all of his ac([uaintances for the quiet, intellectual pleasure of 
an evening at home with Fayette Hewitt to read aloud from a fa\orite 
author. His elocutionary powers are wonderful; his utterance is 
peculiarly soft and melodious for a man's voice, and his selections are 
always admirable. But it is only the chosen who ever hear or see him 
in his charming moods of sociability. To the outside world he is 
usually tlie calm, rather austere gentleman, who is devoted to his 
studies and fully occupied by the onerous duties of his office. 

He is a gentleman of great attainments, and speaks several lan- 
guages fluently. He is a thorough student, devoted to books and the 
fine arts He never has time to idle away as do most men. He is 
always profitably engaged in some intellectual pursuit. The old reve- 
nue laws, wliich were most imperfect and unequal in their distribution 
of the burden of taxation, were remedied by the (General Assembly of 
1885 and 1886 by the passage of the new revenue law througli a confi- 
dence in the wisdom and experience of the author of the bill, General 
Fayette Hewitt, than whom the State of Kentucky has never had a 
more honest, painstaking, and able official. His judgment was clearly 
manifest to the people in the operations of the new law, to which the 
only objectionable features urged against it were such as were not 
written by him, but i)roposed and adoj^ted as amendments by the 
Legislature. The new law, on a reduced rate of taxation, will largely 
increase the revenue by the assessment of a species of property which 
has hitherto escaped the assessors. The tax-payer owning much per- 
sonal property can not hereafter evade his just proportion of the 
government expenses by an absent-minded failure to list or properly 
value his personal property, under oath, and thereby shift an added 
burden to real estate which can not be concealed or sent out of the 
State, as money, stocks, mortgages, and bonds. He must make an 
honest return or perjure himself, and as there are few Kentuckians 
who are likely to do that, it might be said that the quesdon of equal- 



88 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

izing the taxation between the rich and poor, the farmer, manufact- 
urer, merchant, and professional man, which has always in the past 
been difficuh to adjust, has at last been fully met and demonstrated 
by the "Hewitt Bill." 

General Hewitt is an attractive man. He is of medium height and 
slender; his eyes are dark as his hair, and his complexion is decidedly 
brunette. His facial expression denotes decision of character and 
intellectual development of the highest order. In manner he is quiet 
and unobtrusive, bearing with him that subtle dignity which is inde- 
finable in words, but which commands the respect of every one who 
has the honor of his acquaintance, and which endears him to those 
who know him best. 





HON. JAMES R. HINDMAN. 



In the inspired pages of Holy Writ it has been said that a tree may 
be judged by its fruit, and the ancient simile of comparing human 
beings to shrubs and trees is not less frequently applicable in the pres- 
ent day than it was in the past. The name of James R. Hindman 
revives the thought in my mind to-day, and surely, according to the 
light that ripe seed planted in rich soil brings forth good fruit, those 
who personally know the honorable gentleman who is the subject of 
my present biographical sketch must feel convinced that heaven smiled 
on the nuptials of Miss Margaret A. Walker and Alexander Hindman, 
Esq , and that genius and good fortune were the fair lady's hand- 
maidens on the natal day of James R. Hindman, their son, blessing 
him l)eneficently with such glorious endowments as gallantry, grace, 
and goodness. They were Virginians. To say this is like giving a 
guarantee of respectability and prominence, and when, added to it, we 
find beauty, intellectuality, and excellence we can scarcely use words 
of praise sufficiently adequate to express their right to homage and 
admiration. The high position they held in society, and always main- 
tained, was proof of their deserving qualities. 

(89) 



go REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

Their son, James R. Hindman, was born in Adair county on the 
4th day of February, 1839. He was educated in the schools of Adair 
county, then and now considered among the most thorough in the 
country. To be born in Adair county is to have, as it were, a hberal 
education, its citizens are so free-hearted, so intelHgent, so courage- 
ous and enduring — but all Kentuckians know the worth of those fel- 
low-statesmen who live in what is known as the "Green-river coun- 
try." It goes without saying that they are clever. 

Mr. Alexander Hindman was by occupation a farmer, and a very 
successful one ; but because his son James was, as a consequence, 
reared amid agricultural pursuits, that was no reason the brave heart 
of a soldier should not beat in his breast. Wrought on by enthusiasm, 
the youthful heroes of France could fight and die fearlessly for Napo- 
leon — could stand like summer grass and be mowed down upon the 
battlefield by grapeshot, and cannon-ball, and shining sabers, even as 
that same grass fell beneath the keen sweep of the sickle — could face 
such a fate without faltering or flinching. So could the trained armies 
of Frederick the Great of Prussia meet such deaths and glory in their 
dying ; but the pioneer sons of Kentucky could leave their plowshares 
and their firesides at the first rumor of war, and wield swords and 
muskets with the ease of those who are inured to the hardships of 
camp life, and whose serried ranks in conflict seldom know dismay. 
Young James R. Hindman was one of these, though born sixty-three 
years later than the Declaration of Independence. "The Union, 
indivisible and forever," seemed to be the watch-word of his soul. 
When the war between the sections began, he joined the Northern 
army as second lieutenant in Colonel Hobson's regiment, the Thir- 
teenth infantry. He was afterward promoted to the position of cap- 
tain of Company " H," of the Thirteenth infantry. He served one 
year as chief of ordnance of the Twenty-third Army Corps, Second 
division, commanded by Major-General Schofield, and he participated 
with gallantry and efficiency in the principal battles of the Army of 
the Cumberland. 

In 1865. Mr. Hindman was elected to the Legislature from his 
native county, and so well pleased were his constituents witli his abil- 
ity and progressive spirit that they returned him in 1867, and still 
again in 1869. He was ranked among the ablest solons in the State. 
He studied law in Columbia, Adair county, and in 1870 he received 
license to practice his profession. He formed at first a partnership 
with Hon. H. C. Baker, and, subsequently, he formed one with John 
R. Sampson, the son of the late Justice Sampson, who was a judge of 
the Court of Appeals. 



HON. JAMES R. HINDMAN. 



01 



In 1872, he abandoned his state of single-blessedness and married 
Miss Ermina Young, on the 24th day of June. Their wedded lives 
were exceptionally happy. They had two sons, bright, manly youths, 
of whom any parents, even the most exacting, might ije very proud. 
Their names are Robert and James. They are aged respectively 
twelve and seven years, and the writer of these lines ventures the 
prophecy that they will yet assume positions in the politics of the coun- 
try and the State and national councils second to none of their day 
and generation. In 1879, ^^^ ^^'^^^ again the leader of the vanguard in 
Adair, and, as is usual with one who does all he undertakes to do 
thoroughly and vvell, he gave entire satisfaction to his constituents. 

In November, 1881, he met with affliction in the death of his esti- 
mable wife, but he did not long remain a widower. Two years later 
he found surcease from sorrow in marriage with Mrs. Fanny M, 
Raney, of Franklin, Simpson county, Ky. They were married in 
Dallas, Texas, on December 19, 1883. Mrs. Hindman is a most 
brilliant and attractive little lady. She is versatile and charming to an 
unusual degree, and her popularity with her many friends is only 
excelled by her beauty. She is young, and bids fair to c[ueen it in 
society for many a bright day, no burden of domesticity shutting the 
sunlight away from her happy heart. Her husband is very proud of 
her, a compliment to her superiority which she most graciously recip- 
rocates, for it is patent to the coldest observer that she rates him above 
all the world, which is a state of sentiment beautiful as it is admirable. 
His acquaintances all envy his felicity. 

Captain Hindman is tall and spare in physique, with a manly bear- 
ing, and an intellectual face, which bespeaks the generous soul that 
abides within his " tenement of clay.' He is universally popular. 
The Blue and the Gray forget party and political lines in their friend- 
ships with him. He is modest and unassuming, but it may be safely 
said he is one of the most prominent and promising of the public men 
in the State of Kentucky. 

In May, 1883, when the State Convention met in Louisville, he 
was nominated for lieutenant-governor on the ticket with Governor 
Knott, and is now presiding over the Kentucky Senate. 




ff£^~v^. ^"-e^^ ^* 



y 




w 



JUDGE WILLIAM B. HOKE. 



To introduce the distinguished gentleman whose name graces tliis 
article to the jjcople of the city of Louisville and Jefferson county 
would scarcely be less infelicitous than to offer an introduction from an 
old man to his wife, with whom he had fur half a century been toiling 
and struggling up the hill of life. Judge Hoke knows everybody, and 
everybody knows him, and is proud of it. He is the youngest son of 
Cornelius Hoke, Esq., a gentleman of (Jerman extraction, although 
born and reared in the county of Jefferson. He possessed both 
influence and popularity. His mother was Miss Jane Dunbar — a most 
estimable and Christian lady — whose native county was that of Nelson, 
and whose ancestors were of Scottish origin. 

William B. Hoke was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, on the 
ist day of August, 1838. He graduated from Asbury University, 

(92) 



JUDGE WILLIAM 15. HoKL. 93 

Indiana, in 1857. After this he studied law with ex- Attorney General 
James Speed and James Beattie, Esq. Subseijuently, he entered the 
Louisville University, graduating with honor from that institution in 
1859. He was the valedictorian of his class, and a brilliant one. 

Opening an office, he began the practice of his profession, which 
proved both lucrative and successful, his popularity being instantly 
assured through his extensive acquaintance and many warm friends, 
both in and out of the State, who took his success to heart, and left 
nothing undone to cheer and encourage him in his aspirations. His 
clientage absorbed his time and attention until 1866, when he became 
a candidate for the office of county judge, with Judge John Joyes and 
Andrew Monroe^ — both lawyers of reputation and marked ability — as 
his opponents. At the election he was chosen to preside over the 
county court, and for five consecutive terms he succeeded himself. 
He will doubtless continue to hold the office as long as it is his choice 
to do so, for his popularity continues and his friends are as devoted as 
ever to him and the cause he espouses. 

He was a delegate from the Fifth Congressional District to the 
National Convention which nominated Tilden and Hendricks in 1876. 
He has had many honors and has worn them with grace, reflecting 
credit on every position he has filled. In the years 1880 and 1881 he 
was the Supreme Dictator of the Knights of Honor for the United 
States. For one term he was Supreme Chief of the Order of Foresters 
for the United States, and in 1878 declined a re-election to that office. 
In 1879, '"IS ^\'^'' the Past Grand Chancellor for the Knights of Pythias. 
To this position also he declined re-election, offered by acclama- 
tion. He was recently selected as the representative of Kentucky to 
the convention of the "Chosen Friends." which was held in New York 
city, September i, 18S5, from which it will be seen that honors assur- 
ing him of the confidence and respect of his fellowmen are still 
tendered to him. 

He has gone through all the degrees of Free Masonry, and has been 
one of the Board of Trustees of the Masonic \\'idows' and Orphans' 
Home from the time of its organization to the present day. This 
institution is a shining mark made to the credit of Masonry, whose 
silver light vies with the glory of the stars, for its radiance reaches the 
shadowed homes of many helpless widows and orphans. Its existence 
in Kentucky gives luster to her borders, since it is the only home of 
the kind in the United States. It was established and is maintained 
stricUy by the Masonic brotherhood. 

Before he was eligible to fill the position, Judge Hoke twice received 
the Democratic nomination to the Legislature. His popularity has 



94 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



never seemed to be confined to locality — it is universal — and whereso- 
ever he goes, or has gone, he has increased it by his courteous man- 
ners and his fine conversational powers. In presence he is portly and 
elegant — just such a man as seems born to preside. The brightest and 
most lovable side of his nature is seen at home, which to him is indeed 
"the dearest spot of earth." His wife was Miss Wharton English. 
She is a most estimable and excellent lady, full of intelligence and 
noble charities, respected by her associates and beloved by her friends. 
She has added much to the popularity of her husband by her wisdom 
and goodness. Their home is blessed with bright and attractive 
children, and is the center of enjoyment to their many friends. 

Judge Hoke was re-elected county judge in August, 1886, without 
op]30sition. 




@^<1 




HON. WILLIAM L. JACKSON, JR. 



To one who takes pride in the grandeur of his State as I do, in its 
varied and beautiful scenery, its lovely women, and its magnificent 
men, it can but be a source of pleasure to record the worth and excel- 
lence of those who have given that State distinction and added honor 
and brilliance to her escutcheon by the enrollment of their worthy 
names upon it. 

The subject of to-day's sketch — William L. Jackson, Jr. — though 
younger \n years than any of the distinguished gentlemen wliose 
biographies I have written, has availed himself of every opportunity 
Fate and Fortune have offered him to prove to the people of Kentucky 
that he will reflect credit upon every position of trust he may ever fill. 
His mother was Miss Sarah E. Creel, of Virginia, a most excellent and 
accomplished lady. His f::.ther is Judge William L. Jackson, who pre- 
sides over the Jefferson Circuit Court, and who also claims Virginia as 
his mother State. He was a candidate for lieutenant-governor of 
Virginia on the ticket with Henry A. Wise when he made his famous 
race in 1855 against the Know-Nothing party, and, being the candi- 

(95) 



g6 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

date of the Democratic party of Virginia, the eye of the nation was 
turned upon that State, and the result of the canvass was the election 
of the entire Democratic ticket. Judge Jackson filled many offices of 
public trust in Virginia before the erection of the State of Western 
Virginia. After the war, he removed to Kentucky and began the 
practice of law in Louisville, in 1865. On the ist of January, 1866, 
he was joined in this city by his family, and their adoption of Kentucky 
as their future home was assured, and from that time their interests 
became identified with hers. 

William L. Jackson, Jr., was born in St. Mary's, Wood county, 
Va. , the 1 2th day of August, 1854. In 1875, he graduated from the 
Louisville High School as the valedictorian of his class. He chose 
the profession of law as the one best adapted to his inclination and 
ambition, and, after earnest prosecution of his studies, graduated from 
the University of Law in this city in 1877, and immediately thereafter 
opened an office, with young Henry Clay, deceased, as a partner. 
After Mr. Clay was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the City Court of 
Louisville, they dissolved partnership, and in August, 1881, Mr. Jack- 
son was elected to the Legislature. He has succeeded himself for two 
consecutive terms. He is recognized as one of the most brilliant and 
promising of the rising young men of Louisville. As a lawyer, no 
commendation, written or uttered, cnn enhance the luster of the noble 
reputation he has already made for himself, for the reason that he 
inherits his knowledge of law from his distinguished father. The name 
of "Jackson" is dear to the American people. It carries with it a 
national recognition of personal courage and taste for political prefer- 
ment. No name in the United States is more loved or more honored 
than this. Andrew Jackson, who was the seventh president of the 
United States, and who was first inaugurated on March 4, 1829, left 
an impress upon the annals of this country which will live as long as 
liberty endures; and coming generations will recall his noble and 
valorous deeds with that pride which stimulates every American who 
has love for his country and who glories in American independence. 
History owes reverence to the names of those who give it luster, and 
it pays its debts with unstinted measure. It is but justice rendered to 
those to whom it is due, for they formulated the future of America 
and gave impetus to the development of her powers ; and, no matter 
how grand and expansive may have been her progress and enlighten- 
ment, in the untrodden ages — not one of us will li\e to welcome — the 
hearts of those who come after us will throb as lustily as our own to 
recall the events that marked the eras when men tilled the soil and 
waged war; when they endured and died in the service of their native 



HON. WILLIAM L. JACKSON, JR. 



97 



land while it was yet a wilderness, glorying in their privations, buoyed 
on forever with the winged dream, the halcyon hope, of the coming 
time when the dissemination of knowledge, the whirr of machinery, 
the building of cities, the linking of States, should mark an opened 
and prosperous country, recognized and honored by other nations, 
and inviting the com{)etition of the industries, the arts, and the sciences 
of the world. 

Well may our popular and distinguished legislator take pride in the 
knowledge that his progenitors have left their names and the memory 
of their devotion to American Independence graven upon the hearts 
of the people ! 

Mr. Jackson is a man of distinguished and attractive personnel. 
He has blonde hair, and eyes of "heaven's own blue." His address 
is graceful and persuasive, and well calculated to confirm a popularity 
which is beyond question, and everywhere well sustained. 





HON. RICHARD A. JONES 



There are but few, if any, gentlemen in Kentucky who are better 
or more favorably known than he whose name leads this biographi- 
cal sketch. He is a man of " infinite variety," and his popularity 
is unbounded. His friends think of him with the gentle regards and 
respectful delicacy due to the fair sex only. Not that he is at all 
effeminate, for he is the soul of manliness and honor ; but there is 
about him that refined sensibility, that genial consideration for others 
which usually belongs to women. Candidly, he is the only man I 
■ever met who, in every relation in life, makes the "Golden Rule" 
the precept and the moral of his existence. It seems to ])e the im- 
pulse and the habit of his heart and mind to love the world, and to 
be kind to his fellowmen. The incalculable advantages of the society 
of such a man in the social circle can scarcely be aggregated in a 
volume, much less a sketch, brief as this is necessarily compelled 
to be. 

Richard A. Jones is the second son of W. L. Jones and Lucy 
Dent Fox. William L. Jones was born in Shelby county in 1815. 

(98) 



HON. RICHARD A. JONES. 99 

He was emphatically a gentleman of influence, probity, and diffuse 
popularity. He was devoted to his business pursuits, and seldom 
went out of his way to "dabble in politics," or to seek j)ublic office, 
although he did represent the county (Shelby) in the House of Rep- 
resentatives in the General Assembly of Kentucky from 1846 to 1848; 
but he was a prominent and popular citizen, and counted his friends 
by the host. In after years he removed to the city of Louisville, Ky., 
where he died in 1863, lamented by all those who knew him. His 
widow still survives him, and is a lady of sterling worth and undaunted 
energy. She has accomplished what one woman in a thousand is able 
to do. With great honor and credit to herself, she has combated with 
the difficulties that confronted her in the struggle of life, and she has 
succeeded. Her native place is Alexandria, Va. , but her peoijle moved 
to Kentucky at an early day, settling in the county of Nelson. And 
thus it was that Kentucky became her adopted State. She is certainly 
a credit to it and to herself. 

Richard A. Jones, her son, was born in Shelby county, Ky., on 
the 1 8th day of December, 1846. Perhaps more sunshine and glad- 
ness hallowed his youth than falls to the lot of most men, and thus 
renders explainable the sunny-heartedness, the charming projjulsions 
of enthusiasm which to this day are so evident in his nature and dis- 
position. When his parents came to Louisville to reside young Jones 
attended the high school of the city, from which he graduated in 
1 86 1. This school fostered the intellects of more than one of our 
prominent and rising young men, among whom may be particularly 
mentioned as residing in this city the names of A. Cj. Caruth, A. S. 
Willis, and W. L. Jackson, Jr. There are many more whose hearts 
turn to the some Alma Mater, who have settled in different parts of 
the State, or who have gone to seek their fortunes in the far wilds, or 
the prosperous cities and hamlets of the West or South. 

Mr. Jones studied law with Hamilton Pope, Esq., and in 1866 he 
graduated from the Louisville University of Law, after which he duly 
entered upon the practice of his profession in this city. 

Li the Greely campaign of 1872 Mr. Jones was chosen, in the 
Democratic Convention, elector from the Fifth Congressional District, 
in which position he did valiant service to his party and won for him- 
self an undying record for eloquent oratory. Ln 1873 he was elected 
to the Legislature. Li August, 1882, he was re-elected, and again 
was he re-elected in August, 1885. He is recognized as a ready 
debater and a man of elegant finish. He is more universally popular 
than any man in the State. Such is my own warm personal feeling 
for him that my heart swells with the impulse to supersede the name of 



lOO REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

" State" by the word " nation," for indeed " none know him but to love 
him." Mr. Jones has twice canvassed the State for attorney-general, 
and has lost the nomination in two State conventions by small majori- 
ties, but these were supplemented by overwhelming regrets on the 
part of his friends and well-wishers. Regrets, however, bring no 
emoluments of office. 

In 1885 Mr. Jones wrote a book, entitled, "Sand-bagged; a Tale 
of Any City," which is now completed and ready for publication. A 
rich literary treat is in store for those who enjoy romance, wit, and 
humor. As a writer Mr. Jones is recognized by the press of the 
State for his pithy, pertinent sayings, he having on divers occasions 
accepted the editorial chairs of the gentlemen of the quill while they paid 
visits to " French Lick," or some other health-giving resort whose 
springs spout something else beside chalybeate water. The represen- 
tative men of Kentucky all know Colonel Jones, and universally 
speak of him as a princely gentleman, who bears no ill will to any 
living thing. In manner he is as gentle as the most suave lady who ever 
queened it in aristocratic drawing-rooms. He is unmarried, and 
rapidly approaching the line of confirmed bachelorhood. Once over 
the border of this state of semi-existence, the fair sex never send a 
flag of truce, and manifest no interest in a man's future salvation. 
Mr. Jones' many friends hope that in this regard a word to the wise 
may prove a sufficiency. 





HON. LAFAYETTE JOSEPH. 



Gallatin county was the thirty-third county erected in the State of 
Kentucky. It was taken from the counties of Franklin and Shelby in 
1798, and named in honor of Albert Gallatin, who was born at Geneva, 
Switzerland, on the 29th of January, ij6i. In his infancy he was left 
an orphan ; but through the beneficent thoughtfulness and generous 
protection of one of his mother's female relatives, he was enabled to 
receive a thorough education, and graduated at the University of 
Geneva in 1779. His family were wealthy and prominent, being 
composed of people of the highest respectability. Knowing full well 
that consent would be withheld, if sought, when only nineteen years 
of age, young Albert, in company with a youthful comrade, left home 
to seek glory and fortune, and more than all, liberty of thought and 
speech, in the infant republic of America. Dr. Franklin was then in 
Paris, and to him young Gallatin bore the recommendation of a friend. 
He came to America, arriving in Boston in July, 1780, and not long 
thereafter he proceeded to Maine, and purchasing land in that State, 
he resided there until the close of the year 1781. While there he 

(lOl) 



I02 REPRESENIATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

served as a volunteer under Colonel John Allen, and made advances 
from his private purse for the support of the garrison. In the spring 
of 1782 he was appointed instructor in the French language at Har- 
vard University. He occupied this position about a year. In 1783 
he went to Virginia to attend to the claims of a European house for 
advances made to that State. Here it was he became acquainted with 
the great orator and patriot, Patrick Henry, and by him he was treated 
with marked kindness and respect. It was under the advice of Gov- 
ernor Henry that young Gallatin sought his fortune in the new and 
wild country then just opening on the Ohio. He purchased a large 
tract of land in Fayette county, Pa., December, 1785, and there he 
made his residence. His talent was pre-eminent and brilliant for pub- 
lic life, and soon becoming generally known, in 1789 he was elected 
to a seat in the convention to amend the Constitution of Pennsylvania. 
In 1793 he was elected to the United States Senate, but lost his seat on 
the ground that he had not been nine years a legally naturalized citizen 
of the United States. Soon after this he married the daughter of 
Commodore Nicholson. In 1794 he was elected to Congress. While 
in Congress, where he continued three terms, he was distinguished as 
a leader of the Democratic party. In 1801 Mr Jefferson appointed 
him secretary of the treasury, which post he filled with pre-eminent 
ability for several years. In 181 3 he was made one of the commis- 
sioners to negotiate the treaty of Ghent, and was afterward associated 
with Messrs. Clay and Adams, at London, in negotiating the treaty 
with Great Britain. He continued in Europe as ambassador at Paris 
until 1823, when he returned to America. 

In honor, then, of this brilliant and distinguished man, the county 
of Gallatin was named. In 18 19 some, of its territory was taken in 
forming Owen county; in 1836 another portion was appropriated in 
forming Trimble, and in 1838 the entire western portion was cut off 
and called Carroll county. Gallatin county is situated in the northern 
part of the State. Its surface is generally hilly, but it is well timbered 
with poplar, walnut, ash, beech, oak, hickory, and sugar-trees. The 
soil is generally productive, especially the river and creek bottoms. 
Much attention is given to stock-raising, because of the luxuriant 
growth of grass and clover. And the facilities of reaching the mar- 
kets of Cincinnati and Louisville by the Ohio river on one border, and 
the Short Line railroad through the other, have developed gardening 
and the culture of small fruits. It was to this county, so full of 
natural resources and beauty, that Isaac Joseph, Esq., came in the 
year 1837. He located in Napoleon, a town of the aforesaid county, 
and became at once a citizen of recognized probity and ability, and 



HON. LAFAYETTE JOSEPH. IO3 

readily vvon the respect and esteem of his associates, and the years 
only added to his widespread popularity. His wife's maiden name 
was Miss Caroline Lieberman, and with her husband she divided the 
laurels of resjject and popularity, for she was eminently a lady of noble 
character and fine sense. 

Lafayette Joseph, Esc^., the subject of my sketch, was a native of 
Gallatin county, being the second son of Isaac Joseph and Caroline 
Lieberman. He was born on the 4th day of May, 1842, and was 
educated in the public schools of Louisville. He also matriculated at 
Asbury University, Indiana, which is now known as the DePauw Uni- 
versity, and from that institution oi learning he graduated in the class 
of 1S65. Afterward he entered the law office of L. N Dembitz, of 
this city, as a student of law. The community in which he lives — 
Louisville, Ky. — -know well who Mr. Dembitz is, and what his legal 
acumen is generally acknowledged to be. At present he is the able 
assistant city attorney. He is generally recognized as one of the most 
scholarly men at the bar. 

In 1865 Mr. Joseph matriculated at the law department of the Uni- 
versity of Louisville, and from that old and reputable institution he 
graduated in 1866, after which he formed a jjartnership in the law 
with his distinguished preceptor, L. N. Dembitz, who is conceded to 
be not only a lawyer of great prominence, but the best mathematician 
in Louisville. 

In 1869 Mr. Joseph was elected by the school board of the city of 
Louisville as its attorney, in which position he served with great credit 
until 1872. In August, 1872, he was elected prosecuting attorney of 
the Louisville city court, in which position he served the people for 
two years. In 1879 he was elected to the board of common council 
of the city of Louisville, and was chosen as the president of that body. 
He occupied that position for five consecutive terms, and it has often 
been declared that he was the most finished parliamentarian who ever 
occupied the chair. Mr. Joseph served through the administrations of 
both Mayors Baxter and Jacobs, and he is yet a member of the board 
of councilmen. 

In 1882 he formed a law partnership with Humphrey Marshall, 
who is a son of the late General Humphrey Marshall, the greatest 
intellect, the grandest soul, the truest heart that was ever shrined in 
human form. And being gone, no man will look upon his like again. 
The firm name reads "Joseph & Marshall." They have a fine, lucra- 
tive commercial practice in this city, being the attorneys of some of 
the largest wholesale houses on Main street. They are also the attor- 
neys of the Golden King Mining Company, and the Snider Land & 



I04 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

Stock Company, and also of the Kentucky, Kansas, and Texas Land 
& Cattle Company, which owns large bodies of land in those States. 
They are likewise the attorneys of the Ohio Valley Cement Company, 
which is furnishing the cement necessary for the erection of the capitol 
building at Austin, Texas. In addition to those mentioned, they are 
attorneys for other large and flourishing corporations. Mr. Marshall 
]jossesses the massive frame, and much of the massive intellect of his 
distinguished father. He is the descendant of a race of lawyers, 
almost all of whom have left the impress of their genius and judgment 
upon the jurisprudence of the country, and Mr. Marshall bids fair to 
emulate the brilliant examples set before him. Mr. Joseph is one of 
the best known men in Kentucky. He is a finished gentleman, a man 
of profound acumen, being one of the best judges and readers of 
human nature it has ever been my good fortune to meet. He is a 
clear and forcible speaker, and whoever confronts him in argument, 
whether before legislative committees or at the bar, will find a lion in 
his path. Those who heard his arguments last winter in behalf of the 
Louisville Gas Company, before the committees of the General Assem- 
bly of Kentucky, will bear me out in my assertion, for here he was 
confronted by the best legal minds in the State, and they conceded his 
power and brilliant ability. 

In the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 23d day of December, 1873, 
Mr. Joseph was married to Miss Julia Heinsheirmer, a lady of great 
beauty and many accomplishments. Her family is one of the finest 
in Cincinnati in point of wealth and social prominence, and Mr. 
Joseph certainly " drew a prize in life's lottery" in winning her affec- 
tion and her consent to share his fortunes, good or ill, in this world. 

Mr. Joseph is well and favorably known to all the representative 
men of his native State. He is universally popular, and everywhere 
regarded as a man of high literary attainments and sterling worth. 
He is yet in the prime of life, and a brilliant future is before him. 
For charity, liberality, and popularity, he is noted wherever he is 
known. He is positively without stint in his friendshij)s. Those who 
care for him at all love him sincerely. He has a most affectionate 
and gentle nature. His hand is never closed when an appeal is made 
for or by the needy, and his sympathy is as boundless as the roll of the 
seas. 




HON. J. D. KEHOE. 



The subject of this sketch, John Dexter Kehoe, was born on the 
24th day of March, 1854, in Lewis county, Ky., and very early in 
his boyhood his widowed mother removed with her family of boys to 
Maysville. Born in honorable poverty, his fight for existence with the 
big world commenced when he was eight years old. Beginning at 
twelve years of age, in a printing office in Maysville, the work of his 
life, he began at the same time a systematic and rigid course of self- 
instruction, in the face of difficulties that might appall the stoutest 
heart. Having worked with merited success in several Maysville 
offices until 1873, he then went to Cincinnati, where he remained two 
years under the instruction of the celebrated Harpel, and other mas- 
ters of the "art preservative of all arts." Returning to Maysville he 
worked as foreman in the Excelsior office, and in 1876 established his 
own printing works, which he still maintains under the management 
of a younger brother. 

He has been an active worker in politics since he was nineteen 
years old, and has again and again been honored by his constituents 
with places of profit and honor. In 1878 he was city clerk of Mays- 

(105) 



Io6 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

ville, and has always been an active worker in all enterprises looking to 
the upbuilding of his adopted city. In 1879 he was the Democratic 
nominee for a seat in the Legislature from the county of Mason, and 
in a contest of great heat and asperity was defeated by Hon. Robert 
Cochran, one of the wealthiest citizens of Mason, by a majority of 
only two votes. He was again nominated in 1881 by his party, antl 
elected by a handsome majority. In the Legislature of 1881 and 
1882, he was a prominent, though unsuccessful, candidate for public 
printer. In 1883 he was re-nominated by his party, after a close and 
exciting contest with Hon. A. P. Gooding, and in the August election 
of the same year he defeated A. A. Wadsworth, Esq., by a large 
majority. Speaking of his political experience, the Vanceburg Ken- 
tuckian said : 

"Although there were evidently grounds 'for a contest, Mr. Kehoe 
refused to resort to this mode of obtaining office, but again announced 
himself a candidate in 1881, and was triumphantly elected. During 
his term of office he proved himself to be a man of more than ordin- 
ary intelligence and ability, and labored hard and unceasingly as a 
representative of the people's interests, making himself familiar with 
the business of the Legislature and the departments, and is conse- 
quently capable of accomplishing more by his experience of one term 
than any new member whom the people could elect. In his cam- 
paigns, it is said that Mr. Kehoe did not spend a cent outside of legiti- 
mate campaign expenses, even refusing money which was tendered him. 
This, of itself, is sufficient argument in favor of his re-election, and 
proves beyond question the noble qualities of the man who can hold 
his strength and win a race in the face of fierce and determined mon- 
eyed opposition. As a printer Mr. Kehoe has no superior in the 
United States, and his elegant office is sought by all business men who 
desire the best work that can be accomplished with type." 

Since 1884, while he has continued to hold his residence in Mays- 
ville, he has been prominently identified with The Capital, and the 
office of Public Printer and Binder, at Frankfort. 

Mr. Kehoe is eminently a man of the people. Frank, open, and 
courteous in manner, there is litde about him to indicate the self-made 
man, but his friends understand perfectly his tendencies and sympa- 
thies are with the men of brawn. With the laboring classes of his own 
section he is the recognized leader, and he is more — lie is their idol. 
Among the young politicians of the State, there is not one who pos- 
sesses more elements of strength tlian does Mr. Kehoe, and the history 
of Kentucky joolitics for the next twenty years can not be written with 
his name left out. 



HON. J. D. KEHOE. IO7 

In 1884, Mr. Kehoe made what came near being a winning fight 
for the Democratic nomination for Congress in the Ninth district. He 
needed only the fraction of a vote to secure the nomination in the dis- 
trict convention, and, while failing himself to receive the honor, he was 
able to dictate the nominee of the convention. He was again a candi- 
date in 1886, Judge Wall, of Mason, and himself holding a primary in 
that county to decide the question of their candidacy. Refusing to 
spend money in the primary, he was defeated, and gave to his suc- 
cessful antagonist a cordial and earnest support in the ensuing canvass 
between Messrs. Wall and Thomas. 

The sentiments of Mr. Kehoe's friends can not be better expressed 
than in the language of the gentleman who nominated him for Public 
Printer in 1881. Referring to the need of such men in public life, he 
said: 

"For twenty years Kentucky has been kneeling with idolatrous 
devotion at the shrine of her dead heroes. Forgetting the work, she has 
deified the workmen. Other States and other peoples have passed us 
on the highway of progress, as tourists in Italy tell us they sometimes 
pass a devout pilgrim counting upon bended knees his beads before 
a wayside cross. • With a veneration for the heroes and a respect for 
the worshipers that will not be misunderstood, there are yet those 
among us who insist that the energy and enterprise, the brain and 
muscle, that have pushed ahead of us, those who started behind us a 
hundred years ago, will also send the warm blood of a new and vigor- 
ous life pulsing through the veins of our body politic and place the 
grand nno Commonwealtli of Kentucky, where we have fondly but 
vainly imagined the grand old Commonwealth stood — a star of the first 
magnitude in the constellation of States. The pluck and energy, the 
brain power and the heart power of this young son of the new Com- 
monwealth would shine with resplendent luster among your jewels if 
you would make them yours. The tender of his services, if accepted 
by you, will mark an era in your history, will be a trtmipet-tongued 
declaration of your sympathy with the struggling young brain and 
muscle of our State that can not prove more agreeable to him than 
inspiring to thousands he represents." 

As a member of the Legislature, Mr. Kehoe was generously compli- 
mented by the State papers. .\s a sample, we give the following 
from the Lexington Daily Press: 

"Among the prominent and leading members of the Legislature 
who is surely and steadily making himself felt all over the State is the 
Hon. J. D. Kehoe, of Mason. We express not our own but rather 
the judgment of his fellow-members and of the prominent men of the 



io8 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



State who, gathered to Frankfort by every cause, have had occasion to 
note his standing and course. There is not in the Legislature a gen- 
tleman of clearer or more level head ; not one expresses himself more 
forcibly and in language more chaste, and no one is listened to with 
more respectful attention, for it is recognized that he never arises sim- 
ply to be heard, but always to state and urge a substantial proposition 
in a forcible and original style. Mr. Kehoe disdains all clap-trap, and 
is what might be called a practical legislator, seeking to inaugurate 
such legislation as will advance the public interest ; in short, he is one 
of the most valuable men in the service of the State." 

Mr. Kehoe is of Irish descent, and has five brothers and two sis- 
ters, all living, his brothers being well known as prosperous business 
men in the State. His mother still resides at Maysville. 





JUDGE WILLIAM LINDSAY. 



The State of Virginia is the oldest of the permanent settlements 
made by the English, and the oldest of the thirteen States that con- 
federated at the Revolution. The story is familiar to all ; how it was 
settled by a party of English, led by the celebrated Captain John 
Smith, in 1607, and had in its earliest career great difficulties to con- 
tend with in the varying forms of famine, disease, and hostilities of 
the natives, often incited to depredations by worthless settlers ; how in 
the autumn of 1S16 the most serious rebellion broke out because 
Berkeley refused to commission Bacon to lead the whites against the 
savages who had invaded their settlements, slaughtering, burning, and 
pillaging, as it was their custom to do ; how, in defiance of the gov- 
ernor, the people arose, with Bacon at their head, and cried revolt; 
how Bacon was declared a rebel ; how, as a consequence, civil war 
began, in which conflict Jamestown was burnt, and the total defeat of 
the governor was prevented only by the unexpected death of Bacon ; 
how many of Bacon's party were put to death ; how a new charter 
was granted to Virginia, but depriving her of some of her privileges 
as a punishment for her rebellion, which charter was soon afterward 

(109) 



no REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

annulled by Charles II. because of the discontent of the people. 
Then, in 1752, Washington, (juite a young man at the time, was sent 
by (Governor Dinwiddle as an envoy to the French commander at Fort 
Du Quesne (Pittsburg), and two years after, at the head of four hun- 
dred men he defeated the French party at the Great Meadows, but was 
obliged to capitulate shortly afterward to nearly a quadruple force. 
In 1775, Washington served as a colonel in Braddock's army, and 
saved it from utter ruin. In the conduct of the war, and in the events 
leading thereto, Virginia took an active part, and to the army and the 
nation she gave that noble and illustrious chief, whose wisdom and 
firmness not only conducted us through the perils of the seven years' 
war, but also contributed so much toward establishing our govern- 
ment on a firm basis. Besides Washington, Virginia has given many 
eminent statesmen and soldiers to our country. There was Jefferson, 
Madison, Monroe, the two Fees, Patrick Henry, Chief-Justice Mar- 
shall, Henry Clay, and a number of others for the early days of her 
settlement, and in later years many more who were not less brave, 
illustrious, and gifted. On her soil occurred several notable events of 
the Revolution, the most prominent among them being the surrender 
at Yorktown, October, 1781, which virtually put an end to the war. 
And in the late civil strife scarce a road within her borders but has 
been fought over by her sons against opposing forces, and again and 
again has her brown breast been deluged with the blood of her chil- 
dren, and the blood of the valiant children of her sister States of the 
South, shed in defense of what they esteemed to be their rights. 
Virginia is a wonderful land. Rich in minerals (and some of the 
precious metals), such as gold, copper, iron, lead, coal, salt, plumbago, 
gypsum, porcelain, clay, fine granite, slate, marble, etc. Then her 
objects of interest are many and remarkable, the best known to the 
outside world being her medicinal springs. But above and beyond all, 
commencing at the north, is the far-famed passage of the Potomac 
through the Blue Ridge at Harper's Ferry, so eulogized by Jefferson. 
Then there are caves, and the Chimneys in Augusta county, and the 
celebrated Natural Bridge in Rockbridge county, the Peaks of Otter in 
Bedford, and the White Top Mountain in Grayson, the Natural Tunnel 
in Scott county, through which a stream ])asses under an arch of seventy 
feet in elevation, and twice that thickness of superincumbent earth, 
and many more natural curiosities too numerous to mention in this 
restricted space. The day will come, as it ought to come, when Ameri- 
cans will care less about traveling in Euro])e and viewing the "wonders" 
of the Old World, while they neglect the beautiful around them lying, 

" OfTeiing up its low, perpetual hymn." 



JUDGE WILLIAM LINDSAY. HI 

And when that auspicious period shall arrive, Virginia can scarcely 
fail to attract extensive travel within her borders among wealthy pleas- 
ure-seekers and valetudinarians. She has no Niagara, but her springs 
are situated among the mountains, abounding in the most picturesque 
scenery imaginable. One needs to care less about the Pyramids, and 
the Sphinx, and the Cheops, and the blue of Egyptic skies ; less about 
the ruins around Rome, and the Parthenon at Athens, until they \ isit 
the caves, the springs, the mountains, the water-falls, and the natural 
bridges of Virginia. " Know thyself," runs the ancient Persian maxim, 
and it might be aptly added, " And know thy country next." 

The great natural "lions" of Virginia are the "Hawk's Nest," 
nine miles from White Sulphur Springs, on New river, where there is 
a perpendicular cliff of one thousand feet above the river, declared by 
Miss Martineau to have produced on her mind a greater effect than did 
Niagara and the world-renowned Natural Bridge, over Cedar creek, in 
Rockbridge county, formed probably either by the action of water 
during the long course of ages on the subjacent rock, or by some con- 
vulsion of the earth. The fissure is about ninety feet wide ; ilie height 
of the underside of the arch two hundred, and of the upperside two 
hundred and forty feet above the water. High up, on this rock, 
carved by his own hand, the loftier name of Washington stands 
engraved. Rockbridge county is situated in the central part of Vir- 
ginia. The soil is highly productive. The capital is Lexington, a 
handsome post village. It is situated in a valley surrounded by the 
most beautiful mountain scenery. Washington College was founded 
at this place in 1798, and endowed by General Washington. It l;as 
a library running away up into the thousands. The Virginia Military 
Institute was established here also by the Legislature of Virginia, in 
1838 and 1839. Many brilliant men of the past and the present have 
received their training here ; and dear to the heart of every Southron 
is the thought that in this hallowed place, called Lexington, our gal- 
lant Stonewall Jackson sleeps his last long sleep, from which he will 
never awaken, until the Trump of Doom shall sound, and the reveille 
call him forth to the light of Eternal Morning. But that which allies 
the interest of Kentuckians most closely with Rockbridge county is the 
knowledge that the late chief-justice of Kentucky, Judge William 
Lindsay, was born within its borders, on September 4, 1835, and 
that he was also educated there. Judge Lindsay is descended from 
Scotch ancestry. In 1854 he moved to Hickman county, Ky. ; in 
1858 he qualified for and practiced law at Clinton, the county-seat of 
Hickman. He volunteered and served bravely through the war in 
the Confederate army, as captain and as staff officer. In 1865, when 



112 REPRESENTATIVE CORX-CRACKERS. 

the rebellion was ended, he was paroled with many others as a pris- 
oner of war, at Columbus, Miss. His heart led him to the home of 
his adoption, and after so long an absence he resumed the practice of 
law at Clinton. In 1867 he was elected senator in the General As- 
sembly of Kentucky; and in 1870 he was elected judge on the appel- 
late bench of Kentucky, at the early age of thirty-five. Beyond his 
attainment of judicial honors, he has remained a private citizen, pur- 
suing the even tenor of his way, building up for himself a large and 
lucrative practice. He is often spoken of in admiring and respectful 
terms as a probable and most worthy aspirant for gubernatorial hon- 
ors, or the United States senatorship. But from him on these subjects 
the public hears nothing. He seems satisfied with the distinction 
already conferred on him, and emulous only of increasing success in 
his splendid profession. As a lawyer and a jurist he has very few 
equals. He is able, firm, and incorruptible. His clear, comprehen- 
sive, and profound appreciation of legal rights and responsibilities is 
admirable and eloquent of his noble character and fine analytic mind. 
He IS possessed of a commanding presence and an unusually intelligent 
and expressive face. His manner is to all alike, earnest and kind; 
his conversation is frequently brilliant and sparkling, but always 
characterized by that rare good sense which is his strongest point. 

He is happily married, and possesses one of the most delightful 
and elegant homes in the State of Kentucky. He entertains with the 
same broad munificence that he displays about everything. Nature 
made him on a grand scale, and his contact with the world has never 
dwindled his capabilities to suit the " common herd." He is a man 
of mark. He is a source of delight to his many friends, from a social 
point of view, and the object of their ambitious dreams of a future 
life of public usefulness. He deserves success, and he has won it by 
the might of his genius. 










o->- 



* 

O^'- 



-:.0 




— -^o 



HON. EMMET GARVIN LOGAN. 



The Logans were almost co-equal with Daniel Boone, the McAfees, 
the McCouns, the Taylors, and Bullitts, in coming to Kentucky at 
an early day (1775), while it was yet a wilderness, and estaUlishing 
a fort in what is now known as Lincoln county. They were not 
guided in their wanderings by emblazoned trees, showing them the 
path through the wild and gloomy forests, where the wolf and the 
bear, the fleet-footed deer and the buffalo, roamed at will. 

They depended alone on their individual, personal ])rowess, and 
their knowledge of the use of firearms. And urgent need had they 
for them ; for the ensuing year (1776) was the most memorable one in 
the early history of Kentucky, because it was one of peculiar peril. 
The woods surrounded with savages, who were excited to desperation 
by the white settlements that were being made in their hunting- 
grounds. There was no species of outrage possible to be committed 
against the whites that they left undone in order to destroy them. 
They stimulated themselves with the crudest ingenuity to overwhelm 
and exterminate them. Chief among the pioneers stood the grand 
8 (113) 



114 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

and noble form of Benjamin Logan. He seemed to tower above his 
fellowmen, to dominate tliem by his bravery, his good sense, and his 
lofty principles. He was one of the boldest, as he was one of the 
earliest, pioneers, and those who penetrated the Western wilds at the 
time that he did looked to him for guidance and encouragement, and 
they never looked in vain. The high and manly qualities of courage, 
sagacity, and fortitude that he possessed eminently fitted him to be a 
leader. He was one of nature's noblemen, and needed no titles to 
make him great. 

It was in varying degrees with all who bore the name in Ken- 
tucky. They were fearless and daring ; they penetrated the wilder- 
ness, and by the aid of their compeers drove the wilv red man from 
his chosen hunting-ground." They felled the forest, builded forts, 
aided in opening up the country and making for us the inheritance 
we now enjoy. 

To read the present statistics of Kentucky, and then revert to 
those early days, makes the thoughtful student of human nature sigh, 
that those who endured so much for the advancement of civilization 
and the aggrandizement of posterity should be so soon forgotten. 

Their names ought to be household words. The youths who 
gather about our hearthstones, who are our embryo statesmen and 
rulers, should be regaled with stories of Western adventure, peril, 
and enterprise, as a part of their education ; and family traditions, 
involving the endurance and daring of Kentucky pioneers, should be 
cherished with the family Bible. Their young hearts ought to swell 
with admiration, pride, and reverence for those who dared so much 
and accomplished so much for them. 

What matters it that they should burn with youthful ardor when 
reading of the famous Athenians, and the heroic actions of the 
Romans, if they remain in ignorance, or panojjlied with indifference 
toward their splendid ancestors, whose exploits were a thousand 
times more brilliant, and whose great and honorable deeds have in 
the main gone unrecorded for the want of historians elo(]uent enough 
to do them justice? 

Now and then we meet with a youth of the present generation who 
cares for Kentucky history, but only now and then. Better would it 
be to bring home to the hearts of our school-boys their hereditary 
right to the qualities of endurance, abnegation, courage, and fortitude, 
by putting into their hands the histories of Collins and Smith, and 
bidding them read, profit, and emulate their ancestors, than it is to 
buy for them text-books about Rome and Greece, and histories of 
ancient feuds and battles fought on the other side of the world. 



HON, EMMET GARVIN LOGAN. II5 

From 1775 to the present time in 1886, the Logans have been a 
great clan, and not least among them is Emmet Garvin Logan, whose 
distinguished name graces my biogra|)hical sketch of to-day. His 
father was Benjamin Harrison Logan, of Shelby county, Ky., a gen- 
tleman who was full of al)ility and sj/irit, and whose pride in the 
development and advancement of his native State was the ruling prin- 
ciple of his life. His wife was Miss Martha ^Villiamson, of Mont- 
gomery county, Tenn., a lady of noblest qualities of head and heart, 
and above all others worthiest to be the mother of the brilliant and 
[)romising son whose genius and ability have shed such luster upon 
journalism in Kentucky. 

This son, Emmet Garvin Logan, was born in Shelby county, Ky. , 
on the 9th day of October, 184S. During his early years he was 
educated under the late James W. Dodd, but at a more advanced age 
he matriculated at the Washington and Lee University, in Virginia, 
from which institution he graduated with distinction in the nionth of 
June, 1 87 1. 

While at college Mr. Logan became especially distinguished on 
account of his wonderful fluency as a speaker. It was perhaps at the 
middle of his first session that he was chosen as one of the society 
orators. At the literary joust he covered himself with glory. His 
subject was an oration on Lord Byron, and it is said that he electrified 
his large and critical audience by his eloquence, his delivery, and his 
presence. Like the "Great Unknown," he awoke one morning to 
find himself famous. He took it coolly, as he takes everything. He 
became the boast and pride of the many Kentuckians who were also 
matriculated at the university, and whenever he appeared in the 
charmed circles of society he was the "idol" and the "lion," for his 
personal good looks are only rivaled by his genius and his grace of 
manner. Perhaps no man in Kentucky has been so richly endowed 
in these qualities of fascination as Mr. Emmet G. Logan. His face 
is very handsome, his physique graceful and elegant, and his height 
unusually commanding. 

When Mr. Logan returned to Kentucky he made his first venture into 
the strange realm of journalism. He started a weekly paper which he 
called the Courant. He edited it with exceeding ability. He attracted 
universal attention to its brilliant columns. Prophecies were made on 
all sides that his future would be distinguished and useful. The enter- 
prise, however, was not a successful one, from a financial point of 
view, owing perhaps to the location in which he made his venture. 
Not Shelby county, any more than any other countv, but Kentucky 
does not seem to be prolific in any localitv of successful literary enter- 



Il6 REPRESENTATIVE CORN -CRACKERS. 

prises. The publication of the Coiirant was abandoned ; but it had 
estabHshed Mr. Logan as a briUiant and versatile writer. He readily 
obtained a position on the Courier-Journal. He became editor of the 
Kentucky and Southern news column, and under his management it 
became a decided feature of the paper. For several years he re- 
mained on the editorial corps of the Courier-Journal. Governor 
Underwood, however, started the Intelligencer at Bowling Green, and 
Mr. Logan's services were engaged for its columns, in conjunction 
with the Hon. E. Polk Johnston, than whom there is not a more pop- 
ular and brilliant man in Kentucky. To praise Polk Johnston to Ken- 
tuckians is like "carrying coals to Newcastle." 

The Couriei -Journal proprietors soon found that the loss of Emmet 
Garvin Logan's talents to its columns was too sensibly felt for them 
not to endeavor to regain him for their corps. He was offered the 
position of managing editor if he would return. He did so, and he 
filled the position with great credit to himself and to the entire satis- 
faction of the readers and proprietors of that great and influential 
organ. He was especially famous for his terse, pungent, pointed 
paragraphs, and his contributions were recognized instantly whenever 
they appeared. He contributed many leading editorials that were fre- 
quently attributed to Mr. Watterson. 

\xi October, 1882, Governor Underwood again essayed the venture 
of a newspaper enterprise. This time it was in Ohio, under the 
caption of the Cincinnati News. He ])revailed on Mr. Logan to 
accept the managing editorship, making the j^ecuniary inducement a 
question of such brilliant force that it was not to be ignored by any 
business man, no matter how careless he was, usually, in business 
matters. 

He again allied his fortunes with those of Governor ITnderwood. 
He assumed the management of the News, and under his control it 
took a prominent place in Ohio, politics, and was acknowledged to be 
the principal factor in the election of Governor Hoadly, in that 
usually Re])ul)lican State. 

This position of managing editor Mr. Logan held for two years, 
after which period of time he returned to Louisville, where, in May, 
1884, with his old friend and co-laborer. Colonel E. Polk Johnston, 
he launched on the sea of journalism that natty, popular, successful 
little craft, the Louisville Evening Times. He has made the paper a 
power in all classes of society. It finds its way everywhere, and is 
everywhere regarded as a cheerful, sunshiny friend. Its wit sparkles 
and overflows like froth on champagne. Its paragraphs are an ever 
recurring delight. Rumor has it that Mr. Logan intends to abandon 



HON. EiM.MKT GARVIxX LOGAN. 



117 



journalism ard confine himself to rural pursuits. For the sake of the 
public generally, and himself particularly, we hope this is not true. 
Such lights as the mind of Emmet Garvin Logan should not be "hid 
under a bushel."" He belongs to the world of letters, and he should 
not abandon the fields of fame for the tillage of less productive soil. 

Mr. Logan, on the 30th day of November, 1881, was married to 
Miss Lena Co\ington, daughter of Dr. Albert Covington, a promi- 
nent physician of Warren county. She is a lady of rare refinement 
and finished attainments. Few ladies in the State ecjual her in beauty 
and culture. Two children have blessed their union : Wells Coving- 
ton Logan, a bright, handsome boy, and Emmet Garvin Logan, 
another boy, of only a few weeks advent into this weary old world 
of ours, but by his sprightliness and beauty even now giving promise 
of being an ornament to society in the future years that lie untrodden 
before him — a source of pride to his native State, and the object of 
love and admiration to his friends and his relations. 







< > 

f 



-'M';.- 




HON. JAMES B. McCREARY. 

The present member of Congress from the Eighth Congressional 
District, Hon. James B. McCreary, was born in the county of Madi- 
son, in the State of Kentucky, on the 8th day of July, 1838. His 
father, Dr. E. R. McCreary, was descended from a fine old Virginia 
family, which prided itself upon its ancestral lines. The maiden name 
of his mother was Sabrina D. Bennett. 

Her ancestors enrolled themselves among those whose noble and 
heroic deeds gave luster to the renown of Virginia, while yet a colony, 
but at an early day in the liistory of Kentucky they removed to the 
new country from the .State of Virginia. Mr. McCreary's grandfather, 
on the paternal side, was a soldier from Kentucky in the war of 1812 ; 
and Dr. Charles McCreary, with wliom the father of this sketch studied 
medicine, was a member of the Kentucky Legishiturc from Ohio county 
as early as 1809. 

In 1857, James B. McCreary graduated from Centre College, Dan- 
ville, Ky. He was then about eighteen years of age. He immediately 
thereafter entered upon the study of the law, graduating from the 

(118) 



HON. JAMES B. M CREARY. 1 19 

University of Tennessee in 1859, being a valedictorian of his class 
which numbered forty-seven members. 

Returning to Richmond, Ky., he established himself in a law-office 
and began to practice his profession, inspired by the resolution to 
build for himself not only a clientage, whose emoluments would en- 
hance his always more than generous exchequer, but to take honorable 
position among those who had distinguished themselves at the bar and 
upon the bench. 

The technicalities, intricacies, com])lications, and jierplexities of 
the law never daunted his youthful ardor and his vigorous intellectu- 
ality. Unlike George Rouncewell, who was reared amid the historic 
grandeurs of the House of Dedlock, he did ''take kindly to the craft ; " 
but early in 1862 he was chosen major of the Eleventh Kentucky 
Confederate cavalry, which was commanded by Colonel Chenault, who 
joined General John H. Morgan. It would be futile for me to attempt 
to detail to the reader the brilliant service it rendered to the Confederacy, 
since history abounds with records of the gallant deeds of Morgan and 
his men. Colonel Chenault was killed at the head of his regiment at 
Green River Bridge on the 4th of July, 1863, and Major McCreary 
was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, which position he held 
to the close of the war, in 1865. 

He served in the West during the early part of the war, and later 
on in A'irginia under General Jolm C. Breckinridge. His record was 
that of a gallant and courageous officer. 

When he returned to his native county, having realized the glories 
of war and its attendant hardships, he again entered upon the practice 
of his profession, finding his enthusiasm for it undaunted, and his 
purpose as earnest as of yore. On the 12th of June, 1867, 'le was 
married to Miss Katie Hughes, the daughter of Thomas Hughes, 
Esq., a wealthy farmer of Fayette county, Ky. Miss Hughes was cele- 
brated for her beauty, her refinement, and her intelligence. 

In 1 868, Colcjnel McCreary was chosen a delegate from his Congres- 
sional district to the National Convention in New York, which nomi- 
nated Seymour and Blair, and in 1869 he was elected to the Kentucky 
Legislature. He was re-elected and without opposition in 1871, and 
was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1873, ^^^ 
was again elected without opposition, and again made Speaker of the 
House. During the entire four years that he served in that position 
no appeal was ever taken from his ruling. 

Kentucky has not a more accomplished parliamentarian and diplo- 
matist than the Hon. James B. McCreary. Indeed, it is generally 
conceded that he is the peer of Kentucky's distinguished John G. 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



Carlisle, who is Speaker of the United States Congress. He is 
possessed of fluent sjjeech, a rich, resonant voice, and captivating ad- 
dress, which appeal directly to the hearts, not only of his constitu- 
ents, but his associates, and make them his friends. 

In August, 1875, he was elected governor of Kentucky, defeating 
two distinguished soldiers and statesmen for the nomination — General 
John S. Williams, of Mt. Sterling, and Colonel J. Stoddard Johnston, 
of Frankfort. Judge John M. Harlan was the Republican nominee, and 
he was defeated by a large majority at the August election in 1875. 
Colonel McCreary made Kentucky a most admirable executive, and his 
administration stands out in bold relief for future generations to con- 
template with deep respect for the mild and wise excellence it portrays. 
In 1 884, ex-Governor McCreary entered the canvass for Congress in the 
Eighth Congressional District against the Hon. Milton J. Durham, now 
First Controller of the Treasury of the United States, and who had 
thrice represented the district in the Congress of the United States, 
and the Hon. Phil. B. Thompson, Jr., who had represented it three 
terms, and who is acknowledged to be one of the ablest lawyers in 
the State. 

After an active canvass Governor McCreary received the nomination 
in primary election l)y thirty-two hundred and sixty-nine majority over 
the Hon. Milton J. Durham, and three thousand majority over the 
Hon. Phil B. Thompson, Jr. He also defeated James Sebastian, the 
Republican nominee, at the election in November, 1884, by a majority 
of twenty-one hundred and forty-six, the largest Democratic majority 
ever received in the district. 

Governor McCreary is a gentleman of accomplishment and erudition. 
He possesses wealth, and, what is better than gold, noble principles 
and a good heart. He is not only a successful lawyer and a popular 
politician, but he is a farmer who produces both corn and cotton, and 
"keeps his fences in repair" politically and in point of fact, having a 
farm in Madison county and a plantation in the State of Alabama. 




HON. THOMAS E. MOSS. 



On the 14th day of March, 1S40, the town of Greensburg, and the 
county of Green, in the State of Kentucky, although at the time 
unconscious of the added leaf in their wreath of laurel, certainly had 
the recording angel to smile upon their peaceful boundaries when he 
took note in the Doomsday Book of the arrival of another soul destined 
to add luster to a world his presence adorned, and so the name stood 
upon the register of Time and Eternity, " Thomas E. Moss." How 
well-known he is to-day, socially and politically, all men in and out of 
the State who take pride and interest in representative Kentuckians 
can testify. Mr. Moss is the son of T. S. T. and Judith C. Moss. 
His father removed to Kentucky at an early day from the State of 
North Carolina. His mother was a Miss Bullock, of Mercer county, 
Ky. The ancestors of both father and mother were of Virginia origin. 
Miss Bullock's relations are mentioned in Kentucky history as among 
the most dauntless and intelligent of those brave, high spirits that 
penetrated a wilderness, opened paths for the advancement of civiliza- 
tion, and left as an immortal heritage for their descendants a glorious 

(121) 



122 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

and expansive State. It was also a brother of hers who was the com- 
monwealth's attorney for that judicial district of which Mercer county 
formed a part, and who prosecuted Judge Wilkinson in the celebrated 
trial which in court annals bears his name. 

Thomas E. Moss was educated at Columbia, Adair county, Ky. 
He graduated from the University of Law in Louisville, Ky., and 
received his diploma as the sign-manual of his ability to fight the battle 
of life, and " law" himself through any difficulties that might beset 
his onward march to distinction at the bar. At the first tocsin of war, 
however, thoughts of the bench and the bar vanished from young 
Moss' mind. His Southern blood mounted to fever heat. His 
dreams were of the battlefield — of glory, of liberty. 

Early in 1861 he joined the Confederate army. Company "A," 
Twentieth Kentucky infantry. This company was commanded by 
Captain J. W. Moss, his elder brother, who had served as captain of 
Company "A," Second Kentucky regiment, in the Mexican war. This 
gallant officer was killed at Jonesboro, Ga., as colonel of the Second 
Kentucky regiment of infantry in the " Orphan Brigade," at the time 
that Sherman made his fateful march to the sea. After the battle of 
Fort Donelson the subject of this sketch was promoted, for gallant 
conduct on the field, to the position of adjutant of the regiment, and 
in that capacity he did service until the battle of Jackson, Miss., was 
fought. He was wounded in nearly every fight in which his regiment 
was engaged. Unfortunately, for his comfort, at least, his wounds 
would heal and he would return to his regiment just in time to take 
his position and get wounded again in their next engagement. He 
probably has more scars to attest his gallantry and daring than any 
other soldier who was a member of that regiment. After the battle of 
Jackson, Miss., which was fought in 1863, he was promoted to the 
rank of major, which position he held until the close of the war. 

When Peace unfurled her snowy wings, and the roll of the drum 
and the shriek of the ear-piercing fife no longer were heard, and the 
thunder of the cannon no more reverberated among the hills, Major 
Moss returned to Paducah, Ky. , and resuming his old-time occupation, 
he entered upon the practice of law. But whether it be true that 
some men seek office, and some offices seek men, certain it is that the 
musty tomes of legal lore seemed destined not to fetter Major Moss 
within the narrow limits of an office, for in the year 1869 he was 
elected to the Legislature of Kentucky. He was conceded the posi- 
tion of an important factor in State affairs, and so fully did the people 
recognize his ability and acumen, that in 1875 ^'"^ ^^'^^ elected attorney- 
general of Kentucky. In this capacity he served the State for four years. 



HON. THOMAS E. MOSS. 



His term of office was conspicuous from the fact that he rendered 
important service to the State, meeting the talent of Kentucky and 
Ohio in intellectual debate, and rendering thereby still more secure his 
position as a man of prominence antl brilliancy. 

In 1S71 he was married to Miss Margaret A. Bright, a lady of 
beauty and many accomplishments. She was the daughter of Jesse D. 
Bright, the illustrious gentleman who served in Indiana as senator in 
Congress for eighteen years, a portion of that time presiding as presi- 
dent of the Senate. He was tinally forced to resign his seat in that 
body on account of his extreme partisanship for the South, which 
meant his deep devotion and sympathy with the Southern cause. 

In August, 1885, Major Moss was again elected to the Legislature, 
and is at present serving his term in the lower house. As usual, he is 
upon the judiciary committee, as well as upon revenue and taxation. 

Major Moss has tlie honor also of being a brother-in-law of the 
Hon. Thomas Poor, who is now one of the affable clerks of the Court 
of Appeals, and as popular as any man in Kentucky. Three children 
have blessed the union of Miss Bright and the gallant Major Moss. 
They are handsome and interesting, and give promise of one day being 
ornaments to the State of their nativity. 

In pcrson/icl, Major Moss is of captivating presence, medium height, 
and rather rotund in form. He has dark hair, and very brilliant dark 
eyes. His head is exceptionally fine, being large and splendidly 
developed. Dark beard covers the lower portion of his expressive 
face. His manners are suave, as befits a successful politician, but con- 
veying at the same time an impression of his daring as a soldier and 
his substantiality as a good citizen. 

Major Moss was the leader in getting up the fight on the •' Maple 
Leaf," near Cape Henry light-house, which resulted in the capturing 
of the vessel and enabling the Confederates on board to escape This 
act was considered by both the Union and Confederate authorities to 
have been one of the most daring acts of the war. At that time 
Major Moss was suffering from a wound he had received in battle 
before he was captured. 




HON. W. C. OWENS. 



It IS a noble custom to perpetuate the names of great men who 
reflect credit on their country by naming the counties and towns of the 
different States in their honor. It is not only bestowing well-merited 
comphments on those who are or who were well worthy to receive 
them, but it is a salient means by which posterity will l)e led to keep 
their memories green as long as liberty and independence endure. 

Especially is this true in regard to Kentuckians, who, of all people 
in the world, are wedded to tradition and history. They, one and 
all, claim personal interest in the distinction of our great men— living 
and dead— and they are freer from envy in acknowledging merit and 
ability than men will be found to be in any other part of the universe. 

My mind is led into this channel of thought by the name of the 
gentleman which graces the sketch which I am to write to-day. 

I know not if W. C. Owens be a direct lineal descendant to the 
Colonel Abraham Owen for whom Owen county is named, but it is 
my belief that where tlie nomenclature of families is homogeneous the 
ties of consanguinity are also homologous, and^generation after genera- 

(124) •i.v^-, ' 



HON. W. C. OWENS. 1 25 

tion the strength, the grandeur, the power of a noble race in one or 
another of the descendants exenipHfies itself, as in this instance — the 
bravery and dash exhibited by Abraham Owen, when as a lieutenant in 
Captain Lemon's company he took gallant part in St. Clair's defeat on 
November 4, 1791 — when in the expedition, led by Colonel Hardin to 
White river, he aided in routing the Indians in their hunting camps, and 
when as captain of the first militia company raised in Shelby county he 
endeared himself to his companions by his goodness and bravery and 
general nobility of conduct— never forgetting the same course, when 
as major and colonel of a dashing regiment he did fine service for his 
country in General Wilkinson's campaign, and when in time of peace he 
was elected to the Legislature by the largest vote ever j^olled in the 
county of Shelby, and in 1791 was chosen a member of the conven- 
tion which framed the Constitution of Kentucky — proving that in 
peace and war as well he had a strong hold on the affections of the 
people — serving them also in the Senate of the body politic of the 
State, when 'in 181 r he was the first to join Governor Harrison at Yin- 
cennes for the purj^ose of resisting the Indian bands' led by Tecumseh 
and his brother, the Prophet, when he was chosen by General Harrison 
to be one of his aides-de-camp, and at the memorable battle of Tip- 
pecanoe fcll at the side of his gallant chief fighting for his country, 
deeply regretted by the army and his hosts of friends in Kentucky — 
when in the following December, the Legislature of Kentucky went 
into mourning for the loss of Colonels Daviess and Owen, and others who 
had fallen at Tippecanoe, and in 1819 and 1820 Colonel Owen's memory 
was perpetuated by a county bearing his name— so in the present genera- 
tion does the same spirit of bravery and gallantry exemplify itself in 
the splendid [jower of W. C. Owens, who has taken so prominent a 
position in the consideration of statesmen since 1877. And if Colonel 
Abraham Owen in war and council was brave, independent, and fear- 
less, and mild and gentlemanly as a citizen, so in the case of W. C. 
Owens has the brave, independent, and fearless character displayed 
itself, for he knows the right, and knowing dares maintain it, no matter 
how heavy the odds he is called on to face. 

No ease or civil distinction could have a charm for him unless 
won at the point of his own individual merit as a citizen and his 
ability as a parliamentarian. So is it that we can draw the lines of 
contrast and similarity between an elegant diplomatist of to-day, and 
a chivalrous patriot who made war against the North-western sav- 
ages with a band of soldiers whose deeds of heroism at Tippecanoe in 
future years will vie in the estimation of posterity with those who 
fought and fell at Thermopylae. 



126 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

W. C. Owens was born in Scott county, Ky., October 17, 1849. 
He was the son of Charles Owens, Esq., and his mother's maiden 
name was Miss Eliza Tucker. His parents were both congenital Ken- 
tuckians, and more honored and respected names than those of 
'"Owen" and "Tucker" are not to be found in the annals of the 
State. They were good citizens and brave soldiers and daring pio- 
neers. With love of God and country burning like inextinguishable 
flames in their hearts, they were true under any and all circumstances 
to the best principles and the highest resolve. Hon. W. C. Owens 
attended college for several years at Millersburg, Bourbon county, 
Ky., situated on the Hinkston creek, forty-eight miles east of Frank- 
fort, and surrounded by a rich farming community, being one of the 
])rincipal places in Bourbon county, Ky., its high school being especially 
thriving and meritorious. Here our young student applied himself to 
his studies with the noblest results. Later on he attended college at 
Lexington, Ky,, finally studying law and graduating at Columbia Col- 
lege, New York, in 1872. 

When he returned home the citizens of Scott county delighted to 
do honor to his brilliant ability and promise of future eminence, and 
he was therefore elected county attorney of Scott county, Ky. , in 
1874, and he filled the position with great credit to himself, and satis- 
faction to the public. 

Poeta nascitur, non fit, it has been aptly said ; and if this be true 
in regard to those who aspire to bestride the winged steed, Pegasus, 
and so to reach the apex of Mount Helicon, how equally true is it 
when applied to politicians. There are men who are born to dom- 
inate others, and whether they choose church or State, art or science, 
on which to lavish the splendor of their genius and the might of their 
transcendent abilities as votive offerings, they are potvcrs in the land 
and make themselves felt when obstacles beset them, for if they may 
not surmount the one and avoid the other, then like the wrath of the 
hurricane, or with the merciless rapidity of the lightning, they sweep 
away or destroy all that lies in their path to glory. As much as nature 
trembles at the wrath of the elements, men bow to the sway of the 
master mind. 

In 1H77 Hon. W. C. Owens was elected to the Legislature from 
Scott county, and he has represented it continuously since, this being 
his fifth term in the service of his constituents. And during the ses- 
sions of 1 88 1 and 1882 he was elected speaker of the house. It will 
be remembered that during that session was run the famous race 
between General John S. Willinms, the hero of Cerro Gordo, and 
Hon. I. C. S. Blackburn, for the pcjsition of senator in the Liiited 



HON. VV. C. OWENS. 



127 



States Congress. Mr. Owens at that time proved himself a potent 
factor in pubHc affairs, and a matchless parliamentarian, and the mem- 
ory of his influence and his magnetic presence will never fade from 
the recollection of any man who witnessed his efforts on that occasion. 
He was also elector for the Seventh Congressional District on the 
Hancock ticket in 18S0, in which position he fairly covered himself 
with glory because of his splendid oratory. Last winter in the Legis- 
lature he commanded the attention and the admiration of the State at 
large, and his adherents were more than ever steadfast and enthusias- 
tic in their regard for him. He is spoken of for the position of our 
next governor of Kentucky, with warm and cordial praise of his 
abilities and his marvelous magnetism, which enable him to com- 
mand admiration even from opposing political factions. In his per- 
sonnel he is simply superb, being one of the handsomest men one 
could see in many days' journey around the world. He is tall, ex- 
ceedingly graceful, well-formed — a perfect model of manly beauty. 
His eyes are proud, cold, blue as bits of a June day sky, and shining 
with the fires of immortality — they are, indeed, the "windows of the 
soul."' His features are classic ; his expression exalted and full of 
noble resolve. Nature was in a smiling mood when she opened his 
eyes to the light, and no one who knows of his claims to personal good 
looks, and his proud abilities as a scholar, a politician, and a gentle- 
man, can doubt that when she gave him her benediction she said : 
" He is every inch a man and a gentleman." 

He is young yet — in the very bloom and beauty of his manhood. 
He is brimful of genius and ability. He is bound to succeed in all 
he undertakes, and those who claim ])Owers of vaticination declare 
that in him they see " the coming man." Let Kentuckians look to it 
that the stranger within our gates offers not the meed of praise it is 
their devoir and right to bestow upon the ambitious, the worthy, and 
the aspiring. 




B-{- 



•'-^*S^'^5<^- 




JUDGE M. H. OWSLEY. 

Cumberland county, in Kentucky, is tlie thirty-second county in 
the order of the formation of the State. It is, properly speaking, the 
offspring of Green county, having been erected as a separate county 
by an act of the Legislature from the county of Green in 1798. It 
derives its title from the Cumberland river, which intersects it from bor- 
der to border. Its scenery is wild and romantic; its air is salubrious 
and health-giving and pure as the breath as the lily o' the valley. To 
journey through it, the most indifferent traveler could not restrain 
bursts of enthusiasm, for it is patent to the eye that Nature was in her 
most amiable mood when she fashioned it, and her smiles are mirrored 
in its river and tributaries, and the freshness of her beauty is still re- 
flected from hill and plain. Burksville is the county-seat, and, if not 
claiming an overwhelming jKjpulation, it repairs its deficiency in that 
respect by the cleverness of its citizens, and especially by being the 
birthplace of a scholar, a jurist, and a gentleman — Judge M. H. Owsley. 
It was in the town of Burksville that he was born, on the loth of 
December, 1834. He was the youngest of nine children. His father 
was Doctor Joel Owsley, who was born in the county of Lincoln, State 

(.28) 



JUDGE M. H. OWSLEY. 1 29 

of Kentucky, in 1790. His uncle was Ciovernor William Owsley, who 
was the fourteenth governor of Kentucky, and who was born in Vir- 
ginia in 1782. Doctor Joel Owsley, the father of Judge M. H. Owsley, 
was a gentleman of the ''old school," and possessed of magnificent 
attainments. In his early manhood he was married to Miss Mary Ann 
Lewis, whose ancestors were Virginians, and subsequently numbered 
among the pioneers of Kentucky. She was also the niece of the cele- 
brated Colonel Whitley, who was born August 4, 1749, in Augusta 
county, Va. , and who, like the illustrious and brilliant Joseph Hamilton 
Daviess, tendered his life as a patriotic sacrifice to his country. Colonel 
Daviess fell at Tippecanoe on the 7th day of November, 181 1. He 
was one of Kentucky's most gifted sons — that is, Kentucky claims 
him, for, although born in Bedford county, Va., on March 4, 1774, 
Kentucky was the home of his early adoption. He was the first law- 
yer to appear in the Supreme Court of the Ignited States hailing from 
the land west of the AUeghenies. and his case was the celebrated one 
of Wilson vs. Mason. He married the youngest sister of Chief-Jus- 
tice John Marshall. 

Jn 1806 he was attorney-general of Kentucky, at which time 
Aaron Burr had a preliminary trial for treason. It was in this trial 
that Daviess measured lances with the " Great Commoner," Henry 
Clay, and distinguished himself as a patriot and an orator. Two 
years subsequent to the melancholy death of Colonel Daviess, Colonel 
Whitley fell in the battle of the Thames, fought on the 5th day of 
October, 1813. Although one of signal triumph, the \ictory had a 
shadow on its brightness in the loss of the gallant Whitley. 

Judge Owsley's paternal ancestry were of English origin, and 
came over to the colonies on account of what they esteemed to be 
"religious oppression," claiming, as all freemen should, the right to 
worship God according to the dictates of an honest conscience. They 
removed to Kentucky while it was yet a Territory, and they were 
among the brave and intellectual spirits who opened up its civilization, 
for it was then almost a trackless forest. 

M. H. Owsley graduated from Centre College, Danville, Kv., in 
1854, and from the University of Law, in Louisville, in 1S56. He 
entered upon the practice of his profession in Burksville, continuing 
it until 1 86 1, when he joined Colonel Wolford's First Kentucky 
Federal regiment of cavalry, with the rank of captain. 

Subsequently, he was elected major of the Fifth Kentucky Federal 
cavalry, commanded by Colonel Haggard. In August, 1862, he 
was elected commonwealth's attorney of the Eighth Judicial District, 
and re-elected to the same office in 1868. In 1874 he was elected 

9 



130 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

judge of that circuit, which had so long and so ably been presided 
over by Fontaine T. Fox, Sr., and re-elected in 1880. At the close of 
his present term, in 18S6, he will have worn the official harness for 
twenty-four years, and should he offer himself for re-election, I ques- 
tion whether there is a man in the district (which extends from Gar- 
rard to Cumberland) who could beat him, such is the hold he has upon 
the hearts of the people in that section of the country. He was a 
candidate for governor in 1883, but was defeated before the State con- 
vention by the nomination of Hon. J. Proctor Knott, as was General 
Buckner and also Hon. T. L. Jones, of Newport, Ky. 

In 1865 Judge Owsley was married to Miss Ellen Letcher, the 
daughter of Dr. Joseph P. Letcher, of Jessamine county, Ky., a phy- 
sician of popularity and prominence. She is a remarkably handsome 
lady, intellectually brilliant, and possessing the most charming vivacity 
of manner, she adorns society wherever she appears. Mrs. Grainger, 
the widow of General Gordon Grainger, is an elder sister of Mrs. 
Owsley, and Governor R. P. Letcher was her great-uncle. Their 
social status is the highest in the State. 

Judge Owsley himself is " every inch the gentleman," both in 
appearance and address. He is easy and graceful, and most captivat- 
ing in his conversational powers, which are absolutely unrivaled. He 
is warm hearted and generous to that degree that it amounts almost to 
a fault. 

Although defeated in his gubernatorial aspirations, I venture the 
prediction that Buckner and Owsley would make a " winning team "' 
for the next candidacy for that office. They would sweep the State 
with the force of a typhoon. The very brooks in the mountain passes 
would sing their praises, and the" stars of Heaven would brighten in 
their vigils to insure their election. Let that be the next gubernatorial 
ticket, " Buckner and Owsley." 




HON. P. BOOKER REED. 



In Frankfort, Ky., that natural mosaic of sylvan beauty set among 
the gloomy and rugged hills, P. Booker Reed was born on the 7th day 
of October, 1842. His father, William D. Reed, was the secretary 
of State under Governor Owsley's administration, and he was the 
Democratic elector for die State at large in the year 1855 — that 
momentous time of Know-Nothingism which marked its era by the 
blood that dyed the streets of Baltimore, by the indelible stain set 
upon the political escutcheon of Louisville, and by the sorrowful mem- 
ories that cluster in many cities of the Union, until that time united in 
interest and prosperity. Mr. Reed's mother was Miss M. Jane Sharp, 
the daughter of Colonel Solomon P. Sharp, the progenitor of the 
New Court party, and the victim of the assassin Beauchamp at the 
capital of the State in 1825. Colonel Sharp was a lawyer of great 
versatility and power, and at the time of his sudden and cruel taking 
off was probably one of the most prominent men in the State, and cer- 
tainly one among the many who left his impress upon the time in 
which he lived. 

(131) 



132 REPRESENTATIVE CORN -CRACKERS. 

In 1S60 P. Booker Reed was placed at Centre College, but in 186 1, 
when war was proclaimed throughout the country, he, in company with 
many other young and patriotic Kentuckians, followed Morgan into the 
Confederate army. Afterward he joined the Ninth Kentucky regi- 
ment, commanded by Colonel Thomas H. Hunt, in the brigade of Gen- 
eral John C. Breckinridge, and during the entire period involved in 
the battle of sections for the maintenance of liberty and principle, Mr. 
Reed served his country in the capacity of a private soldier, refusing 
promotion and desiring only to do his duty faithfully and well. The 
soldiers on both sides in the struggle know in what battles that grand 
old brigade participated, know how it covered itself again and again 
with glory, and what history it made for Kentucky. Once, during the 
war, I had the pleasure of seeing it pass in review at Dalton, Ga., after 
General Bragg had been dislodged from Mission Ridge, and its tread 
was every inch that of the soldier. I speak of it as one man, because 
the command moved as such, and the cheers that went up making the 
welkin ring thrilled and filled my heart with joy that I, too, was a 
Kentuckian; that my principles, aspirations, and desires were syn- 
onymous Avith theirs, and that I could, as it were, through community 
of interest, claim a soldier's kinship with them. When the war termin- 
ated Mr. Reed returned to Kentucky. After the lapse of a year he 
enrolled himself as a student in the University of Louisiana, situated in 
New Orleans, from which institution he graduated with the highest 
honors in 1S70. Subsequently, he went to Wurzburg, Germany, com- 
pleting his education to the finest finish possible to impart in any col- 
lege. After this he made a tour through Europe, visiting historic 
places and viewing famous scenes, becoming conversant with people 
and acc[uainted with manners and modes, going, not only in the beaten 
tracks followed by idlers and seekers after pleasures and novelties, but 
traversing highways and by-ways \n a seriously contemplative mood, 
where he could study art and nature, and see, for himself, the success 
and the opulence that followed the advancement of civilization and 
enlightenment into uncultivated and lienighted lands of the serf and 
the minion. Returning to Louisville in 1872, Mr. Reed was appointed 
resident graduate of the city hospital, but he resigned his position on 
account, as he thought, of the mismanagement of its affairs. 

In 1873 ^^^- K.^'<-'<^ entered the race for tax receiver, but owing to 
the fact that Mr. Baxter was at the head of municipal affairs, he with- 
drew from the canvass. In 1880 Mr. Reed became the manager of 
the race between Chancellor I. H. Edwards and Judge Alexander P. 
Humphrey. When Mr. Edwards was elected Mr. Reed was appointed 
Receiver of the Chancery Court, and filled this office in the most 



HON. P. BOOKER REED. 1 33 

acceptable manner for four years. He is a superb leader in a political 
campaign, and has placed the victor's crown on more than one head 
that would have bowed beneath the cloud of defeat but for his cool 
judgment and intrepid daring, displayed in perfecting organization. 

When he was elected to the mayoralty of the city — carrying every 
ward and precinct against his opponent, Wheeler McGee — entering 
upon his duties in January, 18S5, he found the financial arm of the 
municipality suffering from a compound fracture — left in this condition 
by his predecessor, and innumerable sinecures feeding upon the tax- 
payers without rendering any service to the city. He at once inau- 
gurated a system of reform which necessitated the dismissal of many 
of them. This course of action upon his part brought down on his 
head the storm of their indignation. The primal and only motive of 
the mayor was, and is, to make the revenue of the city meet the cur- 
rent expenses without involving the city more deeply in debt merely to 
gratify those who pay no taxes, and who seem to care little or nothing 
for the future destiny of the city. I would suggest to Mr. Recu s 
enemies not to go into any "rhapsodies" over his business, but to 
await results, and after he has failed there will be time enough to com- 
ment upon his downfall. Mr. Reed is the mayor of the city not only 
in name, but in point of fact, and such will continue to be while he 
fills the office. Whatever he does at all, he does well. He is a 
thorough-going man and a highly-polished gentleman, and at the ex- 
piration of his term of office I confidently predict that the city will 
ring with his praises, and where we now see evidences of neglect and 
decay, his magnetic will and skillful hands will produce prosperity and 
improvement. That system and caution and good sense, which char- 
acterize Mayor Reed's management of his private affairs, will evolve 
all that is to the city's interest out of its affairs. He injects success 
into wliatever he undertakes. He is a man of marked fidelity and 
independence of speech and action. 

Mr. Reed, on both sides of his house, is descended from the finest 
and noblest families in the Commonwealth, and the strong character- 
istics he displays are as much his by inheritance from a race of people 
who helped to make Kentucky a State and who also made her history, as 
they are the natural outcome of a strong and pure-blooded physique, 
and a vigorous and highly-cultured intellect. He has been twice 
wedded, his first wife living but a brief period after their tmion, and 
his last marriage having but recently taken place. 

In appearance, he is tall and well built, of muscular but supj^le 
frame. He has light hair and blue eyes, a strongly-marked face, indic- 
ative in feature and expression of great intellectuality and resolution. 



134 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



He is genial and affectionate in his disposition, without ever unbend- 
ing from the dignity of the man and the gentleman to friend or foe. 

From his earliest years — save when he endured the hardships of 
war — he has been accustomed to every luxury and refinement belonging 
to wealth and position, and their influence upon his character is subtly 
apparent in manner and speech, to that degree that no contact with 
the world renders him less the object of admiration and respect in his 
domestic circle. 





HON. JOHN S. RHEA. 



To the reading public it would seem that great men are indigenous 
to certain localities in Kentucky as certain plants are indigenous to the 
soil. I have hitherto mentioned the fact that Logan county was excep- 
tionally endowed with gifted sons, not as a matter of personal opinion, 
but of State and national record, and I repeat the assertion to-day 
with additional emphasis, since it becomes my j^leasant and distin- 
guished privilege to add to my biographical sketches so popular and 
brilliant name as that of John S. Rhea, of Russellville, Ky. 

Mr. Rhea was born in the county of Logan on the 9th day of 
March, 1854. He was partially educated in his native county, but he 
completed his collegiate course at Washington and Lee University, 
Virginia. 

He read law under his father in Russellville, Ky., and was admit- 
ted to the bar in 1873. Liimediately thereafter, he was elected county 
attorney of Logan county, and so universal was the satisfaction he 
afforded in his fulfillment of official duties that at the expiration of his 
term he was re-elected for four more years. 

(135) 



136 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

At the State Convention in 1884, Mr. Rhea was chosen elector for 
the Third Congressional District, and his personal activity and eloquent 
oratory combined had the most telling effect upon the people. He 
attained the largest Democratic majority of any elector in the .State 
He received more votes than the Hon. John E. Halsell, the ])resent 
member of Congress from that district. 

The subject of this sketch is the son of Hon. Albert G. Rhea, whose 
ancestors were Marylanders, and whose place of residence for genera- 
tions was in that State. They were people of superior culture and 
magnificent courage. Their social position was the best. There was 
none higher. Albert G. Rhea represented the historic county of 
Logan in both branches of the General Assembly of Kentucky. He 
was also elected circuit judge of that judicial district, and the fact was 
generally conceded that he was a lawyer of profound attainments. 
The bar of the State of Kentucky was prompt to admit his superiority 
and erudition. 

Mr. John S. Rhea's mother was Miss Jane S. Stockdale, of Penn- 
sylvania. Her lineage was distinguished as she was herself person- 
ally refined. She was closely related to Hon. Elijah Hise, deceased. 
This gentleman was a profound logician and a brilliant statesman. 
Kentucky was proud of him. His unexpected "taking off" Avas 
bewailed as a bereavement to the Commonwealth. It cast a gloom 
not only over the people of his own State, but the sorrow became uni- 
versal through those who had been associated with him in Washington 
when he served as a member of the Congress of the United States. 
His great intellect planted the seed of respect in the minds of those 
who sat under the sound of his rich and mellifluous voice, when from 
the depths of his soul he pleaded for the maintenance of the constitu- 
tion and the enforcement of the laws as they were bequeathed to us by 
our forefathers, sanctified by their blood and tears, the most inestima- 
ble treasures, the loftiest gifts ever transmitted by valor and virtue to 
posterity for the preservation of future generations since the world 
began ; and when he died it was found that the seed of respect had 
sprung into honors in the hearts of his countrymen, and, ripening, had 
fallen on the record of his death in the form of a nation's regret. 

Elijah Hise had no peer for love of country. The memory of him 
goes on like the murmuring sea. While life lasts it will endure. His 
name is rhentioned by those who had the honor of personal acquaint- 
ance with him with almost the intonation given to the voice of adora- 
tion. To a great extent John S. Rhea possesses many of his noblest 
qualities — his fine legal mind, his earnest and impassioned eloquence, 
his dignified and imi)ressive address, and his unwavering adherence to 



HON. JOHN S. RHEA. 



137 



the principles he conceives to be right. Although a young man, he 
has made himself felt as a power by the legal fraternity in the section 
in which he lives and where he practices his profession. 

In presence, he is very attractive, and his voice alone, though his 
handsome face should not be seen, would instantly rivet attention. In 
physique, he is slight, but of commanding excellence in dignity and 
style — one man among many — and the charm in his manner is 
exceeded only by his remarkable mental qualifications. It is with him- 
self to decide to what sublime heights of fame he will climb. Like the 
poet's clarion-voiced youth, who bore the banner with the strange 
device, "Excelsior," those who know John S. Rhea know he will be 
satisfied with nothing but the brightest triumphs. They anticipate them 
for him, and they expect them of him. 





HON. HENRY HAMILTON SKILES. 



In the United States It is the breach rather than the observance where 
property descends through generations from father to son. In the 
State of Kentucky this is especially true. The people as a people are 
warm-hearted, impulsive, and generous. They live well and keep 
" open house" the year around for their friends. They never count 
the costs. While it lasts all are expected to enjoy it. And, as a con- 
sequence, when the demands of "the butcher, the baker, and the 
candle-stick maker " are made, estates often dwindle to meet the legal 
requirements in the case. Only now and then do we see able man- 
agement and discretion go hand in hand, and the law of inheritance 
remains as forcible through generations as that of unavoidable entail- 
ment. 

A special case in point is " Rich Pond Grove," llie homestead of 
Henry Hamilton Skiles, the place of his birth, and descended to him 
through his father, William H, Skiles. It is situated in Warren 
county, Ky., and is as well known to the denizens of Warren as the 
countv-seat. 

(138) 



HON. HENRY HAMILTON SKILES. I39 

Warren county is a splendid country to live in. The people are 
intelligent, ])rogressive, and aspiring. The lay of the land is undu- 
lating, the soil fertile and productive, the water especially fine and 
health-giving. The exports are i:)rolific and of that character of pro- 
duction for which Kentucky is famous — tobacco, wheat, corn, and 
pork. 

The county was named in honor of General Joseph Warren, M. D., 
a physician of note, a patriot, an orator, a politician, and a soldier. 
The Bunker Hill monument occupies the site where he fell — the first 
general on the American side of the struggle to lose his life for libert\-. 
He was one of the grandest officers of the Revolution, second to none 
but the immortal Washington. And from his grave, as it were, have 
sprung the immortelles of genius that must forever bloom imperishably 
in the hearts of the American people, even as the stars glow in 
undimmed splendor at the zenith ; for such orators as Webster, Everett, 
and the Abbotts have woven the immortelles of memory into fadeless 
wreaths of eloquence that can not die while the Republic endures. 
The pride of name has resolved itself into the hearts of the people of 
Warren and has aided in making it one of the noblest counties in the 
State. It has ever been the chosen home of the Underwood, the 
McElroy, and the Skiles families, than which there are none more 
honorable, gifted, and distinguished in America. 

William H. Skiles, the father of the subject of this biographical 
sketch, was born in Goochland county, Va., in 1799. He was the 
son of William Skiles, a native of Virginia. The Skiles family orig- 
inally came from Copenhagen, Denmark. That was some two hun- 
dred years ago. They divided into two settlements — one part in Penn- 
sylvania and one in Virginia. 

William H. Skiles was brought to Kentucky when quite a child. 
His education was received in Kentucky and Virginia. He acquired 
by inheritance, supplemented by personal industry, a fine farm of 
splendid land in Warren county, on which he lived, and by which he 
accumulated a large fortune. He was a man of unflagging industry, 
of superb mental attainments, of remarkable originality and distinctive 
character. His acumen, when weighing human nature in the balance, 
was instantaneous and unerring; his infinite variety of jest and repartee 
and his conversational powers were unsurpassed. It was the attic salt 
of superior intellectuality which to this day fills the neighborhood in 
which he lived with observations and witticism that have outlived their 
author. 

The mother of Henry H. Skiles was Miss Lucy A. Underwood, a 
daughter of John Underwood and a sister of Judge Joseph R. and 



140 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

Hon. Warner L. Underwood. The lady was as famous for her grace, 
beauty, and elegance as her brothers were distinguished for their 
ability and dignity of character. 

Judge Joseph R. Underwood represented hjs county in the Legis- 
lature for twelve years. He was Speaker of the House ; served eight 
years in the United .States Congress; served six years in the United 
States Senate; and for seven years he was judge of the Appellate 
Court of Kentucky. Hon. Warner L. Underwood was a member of 
the United States Congress for four years, and for several other years 
he was American Consul to Scotland. 

John Underwood, the father of Mrs. Skiles, was a native of Gooch- 
land county, Va., and for many years he was a member of the Virginia 
Legislature. To be this nowadays has grown to be an empty honor. 
But then such public positions were awarded by the sovereign people 
only as a recognition diie to ability and superior merit. 

Tiie father of John Underwood was Thomas A. Underwood, a 
native of Hanover county, Va. — a man of prominence in the Revolu- 
tionary war, a colonel in Washington's army, and for many years a 
member of the House of Burgesses. He was the son of William 
Thomas Underwood, who came to Virginia from England in 1680. 
He settled near Richmond and amassed quite a fortune. He was ever 
a man of prominence in his adopted State. 

Henry Hamilton Skiles in a rare degree has inherited those quali- 
ties that marked the distinctive individuality of his ancestry on both 
sides of his house. 

From his father he inherited sterling manhood, clear perceptive 
faculties, quick wit, a keen sense of the ridiculous (which makes him 
one of the most entertaining and companionable of men), and a 
splendid physique. 

From his mother came a high type of intellectuality, a love of the 
beautiful, the true, the good; a rich vein of poesy, and an easy and 
graceful fluency of speech. 

Mr. Skiles received his early education in the country schools in 
the neighborhood of his father's residence. 

I>ut this procedure of mental attainment did not satisfy his asjiiring 
mind, remarkable even at that early age. The monotony incident to 
life on a farm palled on his soul, and, finding no marked opposition at 
home to his desire to change the course of his destiny, while yet a 
youth he left its sacred precincts, and going to Bowling Green he 
obtained a place to write in the County and Circuit Court clerk's 
office. Here he continued his labors for two years. l'"ull of ambition, 
glowing with the aspiring ardor of youth, he felt that somewhere in 



HON. HENRY HAMILTON SKILES. 14! 

the world there was a niche that he was created to fill. Desiring to 
perfect his education, he left the clerk's office and was sent to Hop- 
kinsville, Ky., where for several terms he prosecuted his studies with 
conscientious vigor, acquiring a first-class English education. 

In 1855 he matriculated at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 
took the entire law course, and graduated with high honor in 1S56. 

After his return from Harvard he began the practice of his prtjfes- 
sion in Bowling Green, associated with Captain W. W. Western, one 
of the most talented young men in Kentucky. 

About that time the Kansas fever of emigration seized on the 
hearts of the people everywhere, and young Skiles, with a keen fore- 
sight that wouhi have done credit to an older and more worldly head, 
took a trip to Kansas City, in which place he invested a few hundred 
dollars, which proved a veritable gold find, for that investment now 
constitutes a good part of his fortune. 

After this he was often in the West. He was full of speculative 
talent which amounted almost to genius with him. He failed in nothing 
he undertook. He had many thrilling experiences with Indians and 
border ruffians, and when he returned to his native heather he was 
none the worse off for his extended knowledge of his fellowmen. 

In i860 he combined with the practice of his profession the occu- 
pation of an editor. In that year he purchased the Gazette, and until 
the destruction of his printing office by fire in 1862, he conducted his 
literary venture with ability and brilliance. The fire was accidental, 
liaving been caused by the Federal soldiers occupying the office as a 
shelter from the biting cold on the night after the Confederates had 
evacuated Bowling Green. 

During the war, Mr. Skiles was a " Union man," i. e., he was 
opposed to secession, because in its adoption he could see only woe 
and disaster for the South and the interests of the entire Union. He 
oi)posed, however, every Republican encroachment on constitutional 
rights with equal fervor. He was, as he is to-day, at all times, a con- 
sistent, true, conscientious Democrat — an honor to himself and his 
l)arty. 

In 1863, he was elected county attorney. He served a term of 
four years. As a prosecutor, he was able, fearless, and independent. 
A rare combination of characteristics in the turbulent condition of 
affairs incident to civil war. 

In 1866, he revived and again edited the Gazette. It was during 
this time in his career that George D. Prentice became his close 
friend. It is a subject of pride on the part of Mr. Skiles to recur to 
this gentle friendship, whose memory survives the opening and closilig 



142 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

of a grave. His fidelity to the great man's memory is but one of his 
many attractive quaUties, and his reminiscences, in which Mr. Prentice 
was associated, are not the least enjoyable of his pleasant conversations. 
Mr. Skiles was dilettanteish in light literature. His verses are, 
many of them, stamped with the unmistakable genius of the true poet. 
Many gems from the storehouse of his fancy are still to be seen in the 
exchanges. His prose is at once vigorous and ornate. But through all 
his literary work runs visibly tli,e fine silver line of poesy. His poems 
are usually the creations of impulse, as the following attests — it having 
been inspired by the sight of a pretty girl at vespers. It is called : 

THE BEAUTIFUL AT PRAYER. 

I saw a sinless maid bow down 

At Goil's unsullied shrine, 
Her pure, pale cheek, her hair's gold crown, 

Her air devout and half divine 
Embodied her as Prayer. 

She seemed a wandering spirit come 

From off her Pleiad flight 
And bringing from her heavenly home 

The soft, supernal light 
Of glory that is there ! 

What matter could it be to me 

That she was clad in Fashion's guise? 
Had my soul not in reverie 

Beheld the angel in her eyes ? 

The aureola 'round her brow? 

Her parted lips exhaled a sigh 

Sweet as the rose's breath 
When, thrilling 'neath the sun's glad eye, 

She bursts from her green silk sheath 
And the flowers before her bow. 

She seemed not to have felt the taint 

Or touch of earthly care, 
But. silent as a sweet-browed saint, 

Continued kneeling there, 

Absorljed in holy thought. 

And yet an arrow had been sent — 

A swift, unerring dart ! 
And the cruel barb its power had spent 

In piercing her young heart, 

And Grief the blood had caught. 



HON. HENRY HAMILTON SKILES. I43 

This I knew by the mourning garb, 

That wrapt her fairness 'round, 
And crepey vail with jet-black barb 

To hold its dusk folds down 

From her sorrow-shaded face. 

Black-robed, I saw her bosom swell 

As though with feeling blent. 
While from the sacred altar fell 

The promise: "If ye but repent 
Ye shall receive all grace."' 

I looked upon the maiden there, 

So pure and undefiled, 
Resigning to her Saviour's care 

And guidance like a child 

Her whole heart's bitter grief. 

And longed to rouse me from the dreams 

In which I walked apart. 
Aspiring still to nobler themes — 

To purer faith — a steadfast heart 
And holier belief. 

The prayer was hushed. Soft on the air 

The mellow music pealed ; 
The altar lights, and the flowers fair 

New brilliance seemed to yield. 
And censer tires burned low. 

And yet I lingered with a prayer 

Unprayed within my heart, 
To that fair maiden kneeling there. 

Her fragrant lips apart — 
I lingered, loth to go. 

Blest being of a purer light, 

I longed to breathe to you 
A wish — a hope — a soul's respite 

That when God thou didst woo 
Thou wouldst remember me. 

And if, albeit from afar. 

The hour were known to soul of mine, 
I'd turn, as pilgrim to his star, 

And blend my prayer with thine 
In pure felicity. 

In August, 1869, Mr. Skiles was elected by a large majority a 
member of the House of Representatives. In this capacity he served 
his constituents for two sessions. 



144 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

Subsequently, until 1879, he was engaged in the management of 
his rapidly-accumulating business, for which he gradually abandoned 
the practice of his profession, devoting himself almost entirely to his 
Western investments and speculations. 

In 1879, ^^^ ^'^'^s elected from the Eleventh district to the Senate, in 
which body politic he served with distinction to himself and satisfac- 
tion to his constituents for a term of four years. 

A re-election was tendered him, but the press of jirivate affairs for- 
bade his continuance in public life. 

As an illustration of his ready wit, quick perce])tion, and iertility of 
resource the following incident is not inappropriate : 

When Robert J. Walker was appointed governor of Kansas, and 
was already on his voyage up the Missouri river, he was expected to 
stop for awhile at Wyandotte, at which point the people proposed to 
meet him with a welcoming address to Kansas. 

Mr. Skiles was at the wharf also for the purpose of meeting him, 
although he, too, was a stranger to almost every one. 

Finally the steamer appeared and was greeted with wild enthusiastic 
huzzahs. The wharf-boat was crowded with people. But just before 
the steamboat landed there came a sweeping gust of wind, and the rain 
fell in torrents. This unexpected "damper" placed by the elements 
on the welcome made many serious faces in the crowd. When the 
boat landed it was but a moment until it was off again steaming along 
its destined course. 

The editor of the Wyandotte paper (who knew Mr. Skiles person- 
ally) was expected to deliver the address on the occasion. He had 
already prepared it; indeed, it was " set up " for pul)lication. As the 
steamboat pushed off he was in despair, for the governor had not 
arrived. Happening to be near Mr. Skiles, he asked him in a subdued 
voice what he was to do, briefly explaining his dilemma. 

Fertile in resource, Mr. Skiles appreciated the situation, and said 
in an entre-nous voice that Walker was a stranger to the crowd, and 
so was he, and if it would be any favor to the editor that he would 
personate the governor — that he was confident in the rain and the con- 
fusion it was not known if Walker had or had not arrived, and there 
was no danger of detection. It was a bold ))roposition, but it seemed 
a capital one to the editor. They warmly shook hands. After which 
cordial procedure the newspaper man delivered his welcoming address 
in the most ap])roved style to the acting-governor of Kansas. At the 
proper moment Skiles, with an impromptu eloquence, responded, 
thanking him for the kindly rece])tion, and promising to do all he could 
for the advancement and development of the infmt State. 



HON. HENRY HAMILTON SKILES. 



145 



The scheme proved a success. The governor was introduced to a 
few persons. He soon, however, escaped from the crowd and disap- 
peared on the next boat. The next day everything was in the jjaper 
— speeches and all — and everybody was happy. 

To this day Mr. Skiles, to many of the older citizens of Wyandotte, 
is " Governor." 

The incident is characteristic of the man. He is full of dash and 
humor. His life has been an eventful one. 

He is still a bachelor. 





HON. JAMES W. TATE. 



To those who are well acciuainted with the topography of Kentucky, 
" The Forks of Elkhorn " is synonymous with splendid scenery. The 
surface of that j^art of the country is finely diversifietl, undulating, and 
hilly; in many places the cliffs rear themselves to almost precipitous 
heights. The people who inhabit this j)ortion of the State are endowed 
with the open-hearted, open-handed characteristics for which the 
grand old (\)mmonwealth has been so long famous. And chief among 
the chosen stands James W. Tate, her well-beloved representative, and 
her trusted and honored treasurer. Mr. Tate's birthplace was near 
the " I'^jrks of IClkhorn." He was an only son, and was consetpiently 
idolized by his parents. He was born in ['"ranklin county, Ky., on 
January 2, 1831. His father was Colonel Thomas \ ,. Tate, a gentle- 
man well-known throughout Kentucky for his i)robity and sterling 
worth. Colonel Tale was a native of Kentucky, but was descended 
from a Virginia family of Scotch-Irish extraction; and the faithful 
adherence to principle and conviction which usually marks the charac- 
ter of a true Scot, allied to the suavity and open-heartedness of a 
genuine son of ICrin's I'-merald Isle, was well defined in his character, 
and they still glow and sparkle in undimmed luster in the mind and 
manner of his son. (^olonel Tate's father was a soldier in the Revolu- 
tionary war, and did cons])icuous service with the Virginia Conti- 

(,46) 



HON. JAMES W. TATE. I47 

ncntals. The pride ami dignity of this lionored family naturally 
concentrated in James W. Tate, and iYom his birth, as it were, much 
was expected of him. He was educated in I'Vanklin and Woodford 
counties, his teachers being such acc<)mi)lished and popular instructors 
as John Lewis, Escp, and Dr. L. W. Seely. In 1^48, he completed 
liis scholastic course, and during that same year he received an 
ai)pointment in the post-oftice at I'rankfort, Ivy., under 1!. V. Johnson, 
Esq., who was at that time j)Ostmaster at the capital. The [)osition 
young Tate held developed in him business habits of niethcxl, accu- 
racy, and promptness, to that degree thai he became (]uile celebrated. 
His urbane manner, which would do credit to a courtier, won for him 
many admirers and friends, and "Dick 'I'ale "' then was the same 
" Dick 'I'ate " of to-day, who counted his adherents by the score, and 
who, never forgetting a kindness done him, never lost an oijpoi tunity 
to reciprocate it. In 1^54, under l^a/.arus W. Powell, one ollhemost 
excellent and efficient Chief Magistrates who have ever stood at the 
helm of public affairs, Mr. Tate received the appointment of Assistant 
Secretary of State, and in this capacity he served throughout Gov- 
ernor Powell's term. 

Mr. Tate is eminently a Democrat — an ultra Demo( rat of the most 
pronounced Jeffersonian and Jacksonian principles ; therefore, wlien, 
in 1855, ^'"'6 Know-Nothing jjarty gained public ascendency in this 
State, James W. Tate, declaring that public life had lost its charms for 
him, retired, with the regrets of his friends following him to civil walks, 
and became engaged in mercantile pursuits in the city of I'Yankfort. 
In this venture, as in everything else he undertook to accomjilish, he 
was highly successful, for system and application are the fundamental 
and essential principles of success, and as I have hitherto said, Mr. 
Tate, in a wonderful degree, possessed ability in l)oth directions. 

In 1859, however, he was again appointed Assistant Secretary of 
State under Governor Beriah Magoffin, and after the resignation of 
Governor Magoffin (for purely ])olitical reasons that are as well-known 
to Kentuckians as the name of their State), Mr. Tate, at the rec^uest of 
both parties, continued to serve through the term of Governor James 
Robinson. 

The zest of public service was no longer attractive to him, it seemed, 
for in 1863, despite the protests of his admiring friends and well- 
wishers, he returned to the more f[uiet pursuit of commerce. He did 
not because of this abandon his intluence as a politician, for he was all 
the while an active member of the Democratic State Central Com- 
mittee. He was always a great adherent of Breckinridge, and he 
belonged to his " wing" of the party. 



I4o REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

Two years later — in 1865 — he was elected, as the only Democrat, 
assistant clerk of the House of Representatives. His popularity 
increased with every public office that he filled. 

On the 2 2d day of February, 1867, ^lie greatest crowd that ever 
assembled in Frankfort was at the convention which nominated John 
L. Helm for the position of Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth. 
In this same convention James Barrett, Esq., of the German Security 
Bank, our own well-known and highly-respected citizen, put Mr. Tate's 
name in nomination for State Treasurer. 

From that time it has proved to be a biennial office with him, for 
he has been nominated for it and successively re-elected every two 
years since, and that, too, by the most overwhelming majority of votes. 

When he concludes his present term he will have served the State 
of Kentucky in one capacity for twenty years, always presenting the 
same unblemished record for probity and principle for her indorse- 
ment, which has ever been enthusiastically given. It is a question 
whether any other man in the United States has ever been honored by 
such frequent election to the office of treasurer of public moneys as 
Mr. Tate has been. His majorities have been greater than those of 
all other candidates, no matter to what office they aspired. In his 
last election it exceeded the count of sixty-.seven thousand. 

His public popularity does not surpass the warm personal regard in 
which he is held by every one who has the honor of his acquaintance. 
They are all his friends, who would esteem it a privilege to make a 
sacrifice to prove their affection for him. 

The secret of this ardent esteem may be traced to the fact that, 
beyond most men, he adheres staunchly to principle in all his dealings 
with his fellowmen. He is energetic, accurate, and perfectly sincere; 
he is generous, unselfish, and amiable. In his boyhood he was taught 
that honesty was the best policy, and he grew up in that belief. He 
was trained to the conviction that the "golden rule" will guide a man 
to the Holy Land, and bear him across seas without wings. He goes 
straight to the heart of every human being who knows him, because 
his charity is universal, and deference to the feelings and wishes of 
others makes him at all times a pleasant associate and as genial as the 
sunshine. In presence, he is of medium size, with engaging manners 
and a fine, expressive countenance. In 1856, he was married to Miss 
Lucy J. Hawkins, the daughter of W. W. Hawkins, Es(p, of Wood- 
ford county, Ky., a most excellent and accomplished lady. 

They have one child living, a daughter, Mona. She is now grown, 
and is acknowledged to be one of the loveliest and most accomplished 
young girls who ever graced the capital with their brillance and beauty. 




HON. WILLIAM PRESTON TAULBEE. 



Morgan county was formed in 1822, the seventy-third in order of 
formation, out of the counties of Floyd and Bath, and named in honor 
of General Daniel Morgan, who was a distinguished officer of the 
war of the Revolution, He was with the army at Braddock's defeat 
He commanded a company in Dunmore's expedition against the 
Indians. He commanded a detachment consisting of three rifle com- 
panies under Arnold at Quebec, and led the forlorn hope in the assault. 
Here he was taken prisoner. On his exchange he received the ap- 
pointment of colonel in the Continental army. He was at the head 
of his riflemen in the victorious battle of Saratoga. For his gallantry 
in this action the Legislature of Virginia passed a resolution presenting 
him with a horse, pistols, and a sword. He lived in the hearts of his 
countrymen, and naming a county in Kentucky in memory of him was 
to do high honor to his name. Morgan county, in number of square 
miles, is the seventh largest county in the State. In 1846 its terri- 
tory, although part of Johnson county, was takerr from it in 1843, ^^^ 
was fully six times as large as that of some other counties in Kentucky ; 

(149) 



150 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

but parts of each of five counties have since been taken from it : Rowan 
in 1856, Magoffin and Wolfe in i860, and Menifee and EUiott in 1868. 
In 1 87 1, fifteen counties were assessed upon more acres of land, but it 
is probable that an actual survey would show Morgan to be, as stated, 
the seventh largest county in Kentucky. It is in the central eastern 
])ortion of the State. The Licking river runs entirely through it. 
The face of the country is hilly, but it is interspersed with fertile 
valleys. The soil is based on freestone, with red clay foundation. Iron 
ore, the finest of cannel coal, other bituminous coals, alum, and cop- 
peras, with mineral and oil springs, abound. Corn, cattle, and hogs 
are the leading productions. 

But Morgan county can boast a sdll finer production than any 
recorded in her past annals ; and that is, that the Hon. William Pres- 
ton Taulbee was born within her borders, on October 22, 185 1. His 
father served ably in the General Assembly of the State, and has ever 
been a man conspicuous among his fellowmen as being plain, practi- 
cal, but fervid, honest, and earnest, and in all things worthy of public 
honor and private trust. The idea has often been advanced that the 
mental attrition generated in cities makes the growing youth of our 
country brilliant and intellectual, while their less fortunate rustic broth- 
ers, although thanking heaven for free air and good health, are led to 
ascribe to the inaccessibility of the "maddening crowd" their heavy 
manners, and their slow, methodical thoughts and modes of expres- 
sion. Whatever verity appertains to this theory in other localities it is 
certainly not true when applied to Kentucky. As a general rule, our 
least brilliant and efficient men are those who have been reared in 
cities. When they rise out of the ordinary level of every day strug- 
gles to gain the "almighty dollar," it is usually to figure in rings and 
cliques, and to manipulate city politics. If they have the luck which 
comes with leisure and fortune, they go to Europe. They pine to 
ascend the sublime altitudes of the famed Alps, etc. , forgetful of the 
natural beauties of our native land. Still it is admitted that when 
we need vim, s])irit, dash, we look for our leading men in cities. Rut 
when we need heroes and statesmen to rejjresent us at home and abroad 
— when we require profoundness of thought, unselfish nobility of 
action, grandeur of purpose, and splendor of oratory, wx^ instinctively 
turn to the country, where men have time to think, and where their 
motives spring as fresh and pure from their hearts as the crystal gur- 
gling from the mountain rocks, and we are seldom disappointed in our 
quest. 

Hon. William Preston Taulbee is a living exemplar of my theory. 
He grew from youth to manhood among the hills of Morgan, where 



HON. WILLIAM PRESTON TAULBEE. 151 

nature is forever panoplied in the royal richness of her brilliant robings, 
varying in their hues from the vermeil tintings of the blushing spring, 
to the stainless ermine of winter snow. He became acquainted with 
her in the solitudes of her changeless hills. The richness and beauty, 
the warmth and gentleness she possessed passed with magnetic current 
into his soul and expanded it to meet the advancing issues of a brilliant 
and useful public career. He worked upon the home farm and 
attended country schools until grown. If restive of the quiet duties 
of his daily existence, and emulous of greater opportunities to prepare 
for his entrance upon the arena of public life, I know not ; but certain 
it is that he availed himself of the chances to acquire knowledge with 
a magnificent appreciation of its advantages, when, like the king's son, 
he should claim his own, at the hands of the world, whose winding 
paths through various cities his young feet were fated one day to tread 
as he advanced toward the throne of public appreciation at the capital 
of the nation. Love even came to him as to one of the chosen of 
earth, and, in 1S71, his marriage with Miss Lou Emma Oney set the 
seal of peace and happiness upon his soul. After his marriage he 
taught school, and this he did well, as he has done all things ; and it 
was not until 1877 that the school-room doors closed on him, and he 
found himself face to face with a holiday. After this he began to 
study theology. His earnest, fervid nature urged him on in another 
path — the path of religion. He entered the Methodist ministry ; but 
with all his love of the grave and gentle pursuit of a theologian, the 
world awaiting for him afar off sounded a tocsin in the distance, and 
with his eyes fixed on heaven's heights the ringing clarion voice of 
Fame called to him in the veiled distances of the future, and he paused 
to listen to her summons; and finally, to obey them. In 1S78, and 
again in 1882, Mr. Taulbee was elected clerk of the County Court. 
That he fulfilled the duties of the office creditably and acceptably 
goes without saying. 

Mr. Taulbee studied law, and he obtained license to practice his 
profession. This was in 1881. He built up a fine clientage. With 
his splendid intellectuality, and his remarkable magnetism, he was 
doing more for himself. He was making a reputation for ability, and 
evincing on all occasions a public spirit of advancement which en- 
deared him to the hearts of those frank, free, generous, and independent 
people of Eastern Kentucky, who appreciate merit and know how to 
reward it, and who, pledging themselves to a man, uphold him. 

I am perfectly familiar with Eastern Kentucky, and I speak "by 
tlie book," as one might say, for I have ridden over nearly every 
mountain ridge, and rested in the low, green valleys, and forded the 



^52 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CKACKERS. 

Streams that girdle the hills like silver ribbons. It is the most romantic 
portion of country m the State. I traversed it during the war and I 
joyously avail myself of this opportunity to "put it to record" that 
I never met more cordial and hearty hospitality than I enjoyed in 
Eastern Kentucky— no matter in what part of the United States Fate 
or Fortune led my wandering feet. And in the course of time that 
section of the State— with its untold hidden wealth centered in ores 
and minerals, and coal, and lumber, and great water-power all alike 
placed there by the same Infinite Hand that traced the divine laws 
upon the tablets of stone, while the thunders roared and the li-htning 
girdled the mysterious heights of Mount Sinai-in the course of time 
that section will become, through future development of the State the 
wealthiest portion of it. The capitalists of the country have alreadv 
begun to project railroads there, and when the Swiss and Germans 
shall wreathe those rugged mountain peaks with the graceful tendrils 
and velvety leaves and purple and juicy globules of the grape, then 
mdeed will Prosperity smile, and Misfortune forget to frown. 

Small need is there for wonderment that William Preston Taulbee 
has "made his mark" among his fellowmen, and that he has written 
It boldly and legibly on the scroll of Fame that all eyes may read it 
In 1884 he was nominated for Congress by the Democratic convention 
and he was elected a member of the Forty-ninth Congress from the 
Tenth Kentucky District, and on the second of November 1886 he 
was re-elected to the Fiftieth Congress. With the people 'of Eastern 
Kentucky he is a very great favorite, and the confidence and esteem 
in which he is held are as limitless as they are sincere. 

Mr. Taulbee is a brilliant speaker, and rarely fails to carry his audi- 
ence with him. In presence he is tall and well-formed. His move- 
ments are at once lithe and dignified. His face is one of high intel- 
lectuality, his mouth betraying eloquence by its very formation. 
Mr. Taulbee is yet young, and the world is gathering honors to lay 
upon his shield. His residence at present is in Magofi^n county, at 
the town of Salyersville, but no matter where he goes, be it North, 
South, East, or West, he will still bear with him the confidence and the 
love of those who know him best, and the respect and admiration of 
the general world who only see in him the idol of the mountaineers 
who have sent him to Washington to " fight their battles," and repre- 
sent them in national council, as in the days of old the men of Greece 
and Rome stirred the hearts of their listening countrymen with burn- 
ing eloquence and valorous deeds. 




JUDGE REGINALD HEBER THOMPSON. 

For one who takes pride in the soldiers, the statesmen, and the 
representative citizens of his native State cr county, it can be but a 
pleasing task to attract the attention of the public to those who deserve 
Its respect and command its admiration. Whether the subjects of my 
sketches be Kentuckians by birth or merely by adoption, because they 
are the recognized representatives of that State, I take pleasure in cit- 
ing tliem as examples of worth and ability to those who emulate them 
in the present, or may do so in the untrodden years of the future. 

Chief among the chosen stands Reginald Heber Thompson. He 
was born in Kanawha county, W. Va., on October 31, 1836. He is 
the second son of Robert Augustine Thompson, Esq., who was also a 
Virginian, born in the county of Culpeper, Va., in 1805, and who was 
a member of Congress from the Culpeper district from the year 1848 
to 1852. Indeed, somewhat singular to relate, his father before him 
was a member of Congress from that same district during the adminis- 
tration of Mr. Thomas Jefferson, who was the author of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, as well as the third President of the United 
States. 

(153) 



154 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

Robert Augustine Thompson was also appointed by Mr. Pierce in 
1853 to settle Spanish land grants in California. His wife was Miss 
Mary Slaughter, the daughter of Captain Philip Slaughter, who com- 
manded the minute men in the Revolutionary war from Culpeper 
county, Va. Dear old Culpeper! Sacred is every rood of land 
within thy borders, for it was on thy brown breast the woes and pas- 
sions of thy children were hushed and hidden after t^^e battle of 
Manassas ! 

Reginald Heber Thompson was educated at the University of Vir- 
ginia, and in 1858 he went to California, and there practiced law until 
the outbreak of the civil strife between contending sections. In July, 
1 86 1, he returned to Kentucky, and thence to Arkansas, where he 
was elected first lieutenant of infantry, and attached to the Seventh 
Kentucky regiment, commanded by Colonel Charles A.Wickliffe. After 
the battle of Shiloh he was transferred to the Thirteenth Arkansas regi- 
ment, commanded by Colonel J. C. Tappan. This regiment, being 
consolidated with General Claiborne's old regiment, was attached to 
Claiborne's division. In 1862, Reginald H. Thompson was promoted 
to the position of captain of his company. Again in 1863 he was 
made major of a regiment of cavalry, and again in 1864 he was made 
lieutenant-colonel, and held that rank to the close of the war. He 
was with General Kirby Smith on his march to Kentucky in 1862, and 
participated in the battle of Richmond, and was also in the fight at 
Perryville, October 8, 1862. Always gallant, efficient, and fearless, 
he was equally popular with superiors and subordinates; and, even in 
times of peace, to recur to his war record must be a source of infinite 
pride and pleasure to him, for he was a participant in all the important 
battles and skirmishes of the Western army, and in everyone gathered 
new laurels and fadeless bays for his wreath of glory and renown. 
What an array of , names and what memories do they evoke! Shiloh, 
Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Richmond, Perryville! And, to-day, 
the sun sliines bravely, and the sounds of civil traffic and occupation 
hum in our ears, as if the past had never been aught but a troubled 
dream. 

On June 7, 1866, Colonel Thompson was married to Miss Lily 
Thompson, of Jefferson county, a lady of many accomplishments, and 
who was the daughter of William L. Thompson, Esq., a gentleman at 
that time possessed of a fine fortune, and who had always been promi- 
nent among the early settlers of Jefferson county as a citizen of probity, 
energy, and progressive ideas. 

In 1865 and 1866 Colonel Thompson, having laid aside the sword, 
took up what in literary parlance is esteemed the mightier wea[Jon — 



JUDGE REGINALD HEBER THOMPSON. 155 

the pen. He became a member of the editorial staff of the Detroit 
Free Press; but in 1867 he returned to Arkansas and formed there a 
partnership in the practice of law with Hon. J. C. S. Blackburn. 
They settled down to their legal duties in the town of Napoleon, in 
Desha county, Ark. Each one pined for the free airs and familiar 
scenes of Kentucky, and in September, 1869, Colonel Thompson came 
to Kentucky and entered upon the practice of law in Louisville, where 
he remained engaged with his clientage until December 25, 1882, when 
he was appointed judge of the City Court of Louisville by Governor 
L. P. Blackburn, and was re-elected to the same position in 1883, 
and aiiain in August, 1886. He is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, 
and has taken high degrees in both societies. 

As judge of the City Court he has made himself most acce|)table to 
the people of Louisville. He has shown impartiality, and meted even 
justice to that class of citizens who would be defenseless without the 
protection of a man of noble principles and unshaken courage as Judge 
Thompson always shows himself to be. His duties are onerous and 
manifold. He has not only the control of judicial matters coming 
before him for adjudication, but he has the pardoning power from the 
Work House, and his indorsement goes far with the superintendent of 
the House of Refuge in obtaining the release of boys sent there on 
account of their vicious habits and ruinous associations, and restoring 
them improved and orderly i'rom the effect of example and moral train- 
ing. ^Lany beautiful girls in their tender years would be led astray 
were it not for the timely interference of the city judge, who throws 
the strong arm.of the law about them and shields them from danger 
and evil ways when the affectionate ajjpeals of their parents have fallen 
unheeded, like seed sown upon sterile soil. 

Judge Thompson is not a man of large stature, but great dignity of 
manner. His features are strongly marked, his face one of great 
intellectual vigor. In speech he is gentle and impressive. His voice 
is exceedingly mellow and pleasant to the ear, and he can be 
approached at all times by those in distress. His heart is kindly, his 
charity great and unbounded as his popularity both as a gentleman 
and a judge. 




THE THOMPSON BROTHERS. 

One of the l)est known residences in Central Kentucky was the 
fine old brick mansion belonging to the Thompsons of Harrodsburg, 
and occupied by them until in recent years it was destroyed by fire. 
It was famous because of the courtly and generous hospitality extended 
to all who stood within their gates. The doors were ever open to 
welcome the coming or speed the parting guest, for the friends of the 
Thomi)sons were legion. Philip B. Thompson, Sr., is a lawyer of 
distmction, and a man of unsurpassed courage and independence. In 
the Mexican war he commanded a company with brilliance and gal- 
lantry, reflecting great credit on himself; and in the late war he was a 
member of the provisional government of the State of Kentucky. 
He has been Commonwealth's attorney and is now a member of 
the l.cgislature. His acquaintance throughout the State is exten- 
sive, and co-equal with liis influence, which was — and is to-day— a 
power in the community in which he resides. His wife is a most 
excellent lady, handsome, accomplished, and sincerely admired and 
beloved by those who know how to esteem the jnire and lofty nobility 

(156) 



THE THOMPSON BROTHERS. 



157 



of true womanliness. Her maiden name was Miss Margaret Mont- 
gomery. And it may be safely said that on no more lofty brow than her 
own could the crown of maturity descend, or the halo of silver hair 
rest like a benisoh. It was not at all surprising, therefore, that 
their hospitality was generous, and the general appreciation of it dif- 
fuse. They had, to bless their union, three splendid children; all were 
sons — Daviess Thompson, Philip B. Thompson, and John B. Thomp- 
son, the last two being twins. They were bright and promising as the 
human heart could desire, Philip, especially, being confessedly the 
" apple of his mother's eye," because of his gentle and loving dispo- 
sition. The twins were born in Harrodsburg, Mercer county, Ky., on 
the 15th day of October, 1845. They were educated in the academy 
of Harrodsburg, and had matriculated at the Kentucky University 
when the civil war began in 1861. At the ages of sixteen years they 
enlisted in the Confederate army. Indeed, all three of the youthful 
scions of this distinguished family at an early day identified themselves 
with General John H. Morgan's squadron, and in his command they 
served through the entire war, participating in all the battles and raids 
made by that peerless cavalryman, notwithstanding the fact that they 
were mere youths. They never at any time shrank from the arduous 
duties of the faithful soldier. And throughout that long, dark, inter- 
necine struggle — during whose fierce continuance so many chivalrous 
spirits, in defense of Southern rights, deserted their tenements of clay 
and winged their way to realms beyond the stars — throughout it all, 
these young and gallant soldiers were spared the breath of life, and 
allowed, through the dispensation of Divine Providence, to return to 
their native heather, to greet the old familiar faces, and to be welcomed 
home again by the friends of their youth. Peace being restored, upon 
reaching home these brilliant and dashing young patriots took choice 
of their future professions. Daviess, a singularly handsome and gifted 
young man, began the study of medicine, graduating with honor, 
and receiving congratulations on all sides from admiring friends and 
relations. 

Phil and John entered upon the study of law with their father, 
Philip B. Thompson, Sr. , who is recognized throughout Kentucky as 
one of the best criminal lawyers within her borders. They could not 
have received finer training than they did at his painstaking hands, for 
his pride was centered in his sons, and his loftiest ambition was for 
their advancement in the professions they had chosen. 

Upon receiving their licenses to practice law, Philip B. Thompson, 
Jr., was chosen city attorney of Harrodsburg by the trustees of that 
town. He filled the position with credit to himself and to the entire 



158 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



satisfaction of the trustees. While occupying this position, he was 
appointed by Judge George W. Kavanaugh, of the Seventh Judicial 
District of Kentucky, Commonwealth's attorney /;-<? tern. In this 
capacity he served with marked ability until 1S71, when he was elected 
to fill the unexpired term of the Hon. J. W. Schooling, of Lebanon, 
Ky., resigned on account of sickness. In August, 1874, he was 
elected for the full term of six years. He entered upon his duties and 
served to the general satisfaction of the people. It was universally 
acknowledged that he was one of the most effective and able prosecu- 
tors who ever filled the position in that district. In 1878 he was nom- 
inated for Congress at the Stanford convention, over the Hon. Milton 
J. Durham, after a heated contest, by the small majority of one-tenth 
of a vote, and at the November election he defeated the Hon. George 
Denny, Sr. (Republican), by a handsome majority. 

In 1880 he was re-elected to Congress, and again in 1882. In 
every contest, both for nomination and at the elections, he had for- 
midable opposition, and had it not been for personal controversies, he 
would to-day be a member of Congress from the Eighth Congressional 
District. He is now practicing law in Washington, D. C. 

Although a young man, 
Philip B. Thompson, Jr., is ad- 
mitted to be one of the ablest 
lawyers as well as one of the 
safest politicians in Kentucky. 
In presence, although of slight 
stature, he has great dignity of 
manner, allied with much grace 
and urbanity. His face is in- 
tellectual in its cast, with fine 
expressive eyes. In his friend- 
ships he is as true as steel. 

His twin brother, John B. 
Thompson, was named after 
his uncle, the famous John B. 
Thompson, who departed this 
JOHN B. Thompson. life in 1 873, and who was one 

of the few rare spirits who, living, was universally beloved, and who, 
dying, left not an enemy behind him. He filled in his lifetime many 
offices — from county attorney to United States senator — and he filled 
them all with most brilliant ability. His wedded life was a glimpse of 
idyllic peace and happiness. It occurred late in life. He married 
Mrs. Mary Bowman, one of the most elegant, accomplished, and gifted 




THE THOMPSON BROTHERS. 1 59 

women in the Union, and their association was a fehcitius presentment 
of a well-ordered household and intellectual companionship, based on 
genuine affection. 

Young John B. Thompson possesses many of the admiralile (juali- 
ties of both head and heart that distinguished his splendid ancestor. 
He is especially a fluent and winning s[)eaker. His address is cai)ti- 
vating and magnetic He scores his friends everywhere. He has not 
figured so conspicuously as his brother Philip in politics, but as a law- 
yer he has gained a brilliant reputation, and as county attorney he has 
won encomiums enough to satisfy the most ambitious heart. He has. 
however, turned the "cold shoulder" to politics, and is engaged strictly 
in commercial pursuits. He is handling large sums of money with 
great success. 

John B. Thompson, in personne/ and manner, is his brother's coun- 
teri)art — friends often declaring that they can not distinguish them. 

Mr. Thompson married Miss Mattie Anderson, the daughter of the 
distinguished divine. She is one of the most attractive women in the 
State, brilliant and versatile to an unusual degree, highly accumplished, 
and personally \ery handsome. She is a woman to " mark and remem- 
ber.'' She is a fine singer, a splendid pianist, and yet, above all other 
accomplishments, running like a gold thread through the darker fabric 
of existence, is her charming domesticity, she being even more attract- 
ive in the home circle than when she shines suijreme in society. 

Mrs. Maria Daviess, the author of the able and interesting work 
on Mercer county and its early settlers, is an aunt of the Thompson 
brothers. She was a Miss Thomi^son before she married Major ^V\l\- 
iam Daviess, nephew of the celebrated Joseph Hamilton Daviess. 








COLONEL STERLING B. TONEY. 



T know not if there be kw or many who are in harmony with me 
in the idea that a halo of romance surrounds certain Southern States 
which can never be dispelled by modern innovations or the varying 
tides of mutability; but certain it is that in the depths of my heart it 
is a sweet fancy which I cherish along with memories of the past that 
" were not born to die." 

South Carolina ! 

Who, to hear the name even of this noble State, but may instantly 
see arise, like the misty figures in the Fata Morgana, the sad faces of 
the Huguenot exiles driven from France by the revocation of the Edict 
of Nantes? And, with the thought of Nantes, comes the train of roy- 
alty — the powdered heads, the ruffs, the velvet doublets, the buckled 
shoes, the silken hose, the perfumed knots of gay ribbons, the light- 
hearted and merry following of the French court, the royal wedding 
between Anne of Brittany and Louis XII., when the i)roud possession 
of Bretagne became the propert}' of the crown of France : the long line 

(1 60) 



COLONEL STERLING B. TONEY. l6l 

of names that loom up like columns of Fame adown the corridors of 
Time: Henry IV., Louis XIV., Fouche, Bougner, the mathematician 
— all these visions come at the sound of a word. We can go back and 
back througli the hallowed realms of the past, and remember how 
South Carolina was settled in 1670 by the English; how a constitution 
for the colony was formed by the celebrated John Locke on the plan 
of Plato's Model Repul)lic, but failed; how South Carolina remained 
a i)roprietary government until 17 17, when it become a royal colony. 
In 1690, however, the Huguenots settled the State, and subsequently 
their presence was supplemented by the arrival of a number of Swiss, 
Irish, and Germans. In the Spanish contests in Florida, South Caro- 
lina, with Georgia, under Oglethorpe, did noble engagements. She 
suffered much from Indian depredations in the early days of her settle- 
ment, the Yemasees being especially aggressive ; but in i 7 1 5 they were 
effectually expelled. This gallant colony took an active part in excit- 
ing the other colonies to revolt and in aiding and upholding their 
rebellion. 

They furnished six thousand troops to the Federal forces, and 
many a bloody struggle in those dark days took place within her limits 
— at Fort Moultrie, Charleston, Monk's Corner, Camden, King's Mount- 
ain, Eutaw Springs, and Cowpens, with varying success, now the Brit- 
ish, and now the Carolinians, having the advantage. The greater part of 
the years 1780 and 1781 the enemy occupied the State. In the affairs of 
the National Government, Carolina has ever taken an active part, and 
in the national councils she has ever been ably represented, having 
furnished to the country some of the most distinguished statesmen of 
which America can boast. In the assertion and vindication of the riglits 
of the sovereign States, she has always led the other States as opposed to 
tlie powers of the Federal Government. Among her most distinguished 
statesmen have been Lownes, Pinckney, Hayne, Legare, Poinsett, and 
Call'-oun. Of her bravery, her decision, her pride, her strength, her 
martyrdom in the late civic strife, who shall place his i)en in rest to do 
her justice, however fervent his homage? I confess I am not the one 
who dares lift the veil from the face of the Isis who guards the un- 
known from the known. The dead past has buried its dead. The 
irsui'gain is not for the biographer to evoke. In the swift sweep of 
time's tide it would be no more noticed than the soft pijiing of a bird 
at twilight, when the wild waves of ocean are chanting their fugues to 
the shore. Suffice it that South Carolina is a fitting altar-stone for the 
people of the South, on which they may offer the balm of tears and 
prayers in memory of heroism, valor, and fidelity, the immortal record 
of those who died to serve their native land. 
II 



l62 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

A native of this grandest of all magnificent Commonwealths was 
Washington Toney, Esq., a citizen of Edgefield, S. C. He was a 
finished gentleman of the old school, a hero of ante-bellum days, 
replete with elegance and erudition, an honor to his country, the pride 
of his family, and a credit to himself. He was celebrated through the 
South for his hospitality, which bordered on magnificence, and his 
superb intellect, vv^hich rendered him the peer of any man, no matter 
how brilliant his parts, in all the United States. He married Miss 
Sarah Bass, of Columbus, Ga. General Alpheus Baker (an attorney 
at the bar of this city, whose fame as an orator and whose ability in his 
profession need no heralding from me, for the luminous glow of his 
genius pales not "with ineffectual fire" before the splendid intelligence 
of any of his compeers at the bar of this State or any other in the 
Union) — General Alpheus Baker, speakingof the noble wife of Washing- 
ton Toney, Esq. , said she might aptly have been called the mother of the 
Southern Confederacy, for she toiled for the soldiers of the Southern 
army — she wove, she spun, early and late, for them. The Toneys 
were a grand Southern ftimily. Life, fortune, time, personal service, 
self-sacrifice, all were their generous offerings on the shrine of South- 
ern liberty. Mrs. Toney adored the South ; she would have died to 
save it, with a song of triumph on her lips which Avould have rivaled 
that of Miriam the Prophetess when the children of Israel were saved, 
and the chariots and hosts of Pharaoh were swallowed up in the Red 
sea. Hallowed be her name and the memory of her in every South- 
ern heart and every Southern home ! 

The second son of this amiable and excellent husband and wife 
was Sterling B. Toney. He was born in Russell county, Ala., on 
May 24, 1849. His youth was exceptionally happy. He was edu- 
cated in his earlier studies at the University of Alabama, and at a 
later day he was matriculated at the University of Virginia, graduating 
from that institution of learning in 1872 as a B. L. He studied law 
in Eufaula, Ala., with a jurist of great ability, and entered upon the 
practice of his honorable profession in that handsome town ; but he after- 
ward removed to New York City. While a resident there he met his 
fate in the person of Miss Mattie Burge, the daughter of R. Burge, 
Esq., a well-known tobacconist of this city (now deceased). This 
was in 1876. Subsequent to his marriage, Mr. Toney came to the 
city of Louisville, Ky., choosing it as a ])lace of permanent residence, 
and here in that same year (1876) he entered upon the practice of law. 
He is studious and accurate in his profession, and an orator of elegant 
diction, and was admitted, on motion of Samuel F. Phillips, Solicitor 
General, tu the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, March 



COLONEL STERLING B. TONEY. 163 

27, 1886. He is an earnest and enthusiastic worker and always in the 
van in the assertion of his rights and the maintenance of his principles 
and opinions. He took an active interest in the Greeley campaign 
when hardly more than a boy. In the Tilden campaign he was also 
an earnest laborer for the cause he esteemed to be right ; and in the 
Hancock campaign he raised a club by his indefatigable industry and 
perseverance, he, himself, canvassing Indiana. He never lost f:iith 
or heart in the eventual triumph of the Democratic party. In this last 
campaign he made fifteen speeches upon the invitation of the State 
Committee of Indiana. He has been engaged in many important law- 
suits in and out of the State, acquitting himself always with great and 
commendable credit. He recently appeared as counsel for a New 
York company in a very important case, involving great mining inter- 
ests, growing out of the invasion of Maximilian into Me.xico and his 
usurj)ation of the Mexican Government. The title of the claim is that 
of "The La Abra Silver Mining Company against Mexico." Mr. 
I'oney made his argument before the Committee of Foreign Affairs, 
House of Representatives, Forty-ninth Congress, which elicited much 
gracious comment on his ability, and it has been pronounced an admi- 
rable effort, which has been seldom excelled for pungent, terse acumen, 
and thorough knowledge of national amenities and individual rights 
of corporations. His fee in this one case is ten thousand dollars. 

Mr. Sterling Toney is very jjopular with his friends, and in a recent 
race for the position of judge of the Louisville Law and Equity Court 
he received nineteen thousand votes. 

He is not better known politically and at the bar than his charming 
wife is known socially. She is a lady of the finest judgment, the 
kindest heart, and noblest charities. She is a queen in society, and 
her influence for the development of the purity and refinement of 
society and the culture of the mind is very marked and elevating with 
all who have the honor and pleasure of her acquaintance or her 
friendship. Their marriage has been exceptionally happy. Two 
children have blessed their union — R. Burge Toney, a son, and Miss 
Emma Louise, a charming daughter, of whom the proudest parents 
misht well be fond. 




HON. HENRY WATTERSON. 



There are now and then individuals who are so resplendent with 
genius and magnetism that their names are watchwords to the world. 

Kentucky possesses such names! So does Virginia; so does South 
Carolina; so does Massachusetts. Indeed, each State in the Union 
can boast of its shining lights — heroes, statesmen, divines, orators, and 
artists ! But where is there an American-born citizen who does not 
take pride in jjerpetuating the names of Webster, Everett, Winthrop, 
Sumner, Clay, Calhoun, Marshall, Madison, Monroe, Henry, Pinckney, 
Rutledge, Breckinridge, and hosts of others want of space forbids me to 
mention ? How do the sounding honors of courts and thrones bear 
contrast with them ? What are the transient glories of earth in com- 
parison with their immortal renown ? The possessors of these names 
were intellectual giants. Their minds were of an order of intelligence 
that seems to have almost completely passed away. They were socially 
and personally prominent, and politically and in a civic sense they were 
pre-eminently masters of their day and time. It was not at all s'trange, 
therefore, that they shrined themselves in the hearts of their country- 
men, and left Fame to "guard wi^h solemn round" their resting-places 

(164) 



HON. HENRY WATTERSON. 165 

among the dead, while posterity cherished their memories in unison 
with their love of God. We have living and to-day but few brilliant 
exemplars of their eloquence and strength. The race of intellectual 
Titans bids fair to become extinct. In Kentucky, especially, we have 
Blackburn and McKenzie and Breckinridge, and one or two others, 
versatile but less prominent, who have won national reputations for elo- 
quent oratory. 

But there has lived a man in our midst for a number of years who 
can not be excelled in any school. He shines like a planet among 
stars. His genius, the profoundness of his logic, the depth of his 
philosophy, the versatility of his talent, the soundness of his princi- 
ples, positively can not be surpassed. 

That man is the Hon. Henry Watterson. 

He has been the object of more general interest, personal regard, 
and genuine admiration than perhaps any man who has ever made 
Kentucky the home of his adoption. 

It has been said that Nature repeats herself. If this be true, then 
the exception makes the rule, and Henry Watterson is the exception ; 
for he has not his superior, and, in point of brilliance, address, policy, 
and magnetism, it is an open question if he has his peer in the United 
States. 

He is the son and only child of Hon. Harvey M. Watterson, who 
was born in Bedford county, Tenn., in the year 1811. His mother's 
maiden name was Miss Tabitha Black. She, also, was a Tennesseean. 
Her birth-place was in Williamson county, Tenn. She was born on 
the 2ist of June, 1812. 

Mr. Watterson, Sr. , was a member of Congress from Tennessee, 
and his residence was in Washington City at the time of the birth of 
his gifted son, which event bears date of February 16, 1840. 

Of Henry Watterson, it could scarcely be said that he at any time 
attended public schools or colleges, having been principally educated 
by private tutors. His parents were very proud of him. His precocity 
was remarkable, and it elicited anxiety as well as admiration in their 
hearts, through fear that his brain would outgrow the strengthful power 
of his body to sustain it. 

Because of this circumstance, his education was conducted with 
singular care in the privacy of the domestic circle. The advantage of 
such tuition is always evident in after years. The intellectual develop- 
ment of the recipient of the attention is more brilliant and well-defined 
because the course is more thorough than can possibly be acquired in 
the classes of public institutions of learning. It was thus that the 
germ of genius in his soul was fostered with the tenderest care. 



l66 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

The passion for literature which he possessed and soon evinced 
defined its existence at an early age. He began to write for the Wash- 
ington Staffs (a paper edited in Washington City) when he was about 
fifteen years old. From that time on he became a constant contributor 
to papers and periodicals. 

The first newspaper of which he became the editor was the Chatta- 
nooga Rebel, in the early part of 1862. Subsequently, he moved to 
Montgomery, Ala., where he continued his newspaper labors, this time 
assuming editorial care of the Montgomery Mail. 

Those were stormy days, and the publication of any sort of literary 
matter was a hazardous undertaking, because labor was so uncertain. 
Active service was required on the part of all men able to shoulder a 
musket, and steady printers were a "scarce commodity."' When the 
war was ended by the surrender of the Confederate States, Mr. Wat- 
terson proceeded to Memphis, Tenn. But, at that time, the outlook 
for newspaper enterprise was anything but cheerful. As a conse- 
quence, he continued his travels to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became 
one of the editors of the Cincinnati Evening Times, the duty devolving 
on him to act as critic of theatrical matters. But Henry Watterson 
had not yet found the niche Fame meant for him to fill. His restless 
spirit led him to Nashville, Tenn. There he revived the old (yet ever 
dear) Nashville Banner, which, in other days, had been one of the 
leading and most influential journals of that State. Before the war it 
was a Whig organ; but Henry Watterson revived it as a Democratic 
paper of such purity of principle, of such soundness of doctrine, and 
such spirit and perspicuity that it at once sprang into popularity, and 
on every hand won praise and admiration. Mr. Watterson continued 
to edit it until the spring of 1868, when he received a letter from George 
D. Prentice, Esq., inviting him to come to Louisville, Ky., and saying 
that he would sell to him his interest in the Louisville yc^///7/a/. Mr. 
Watterson acceded to the proposition. He came, he purchased Mr. 
Prentice's interest in \\-\^ Journal, and by so doing he planted his foot 
securely upon the step leading to the throne of public i)opularity. Mr. 
Haldeman was at that time publishing the Louisville Courier. \\\ the 
latter part of 1868 the Courier and Louisville Journal were consoli- 
dated, and the old Louisville Denwerat was also purchased from Mr. 
Harney, and merged into the Courier Journal C'omjjany, Mr. Watter- 
son becoming the editor, a position which he has held from that time to 
the present. He has ever taken a deep interest in the success of the 
Democratic party and what should be its policy in those questions 
involving the national weal! Frequently he has taken the stump, 
North and South, in llie respective States, needing his influence and 



HON. HENRY WATTERSON. 167 

argument, for he is not only a splendid writer, but he is an orator of 
great finish and power, and the new adherents to the i)arty principles 
of Democracy won by his eloquence were like the clans of Roderick 
Dhu — there was a man for every heather plume. 

In 1876, when the National Democratic Convention was held at St. 
Louis, Mo., Mr. Watterson was chosen by its delegates as the speaker 
of the convention, with Mr. McClernard, of Illinois, as its secretary. 
In November, 1876, he was elected to Congress to fill the unexpired 
term of Hon. Edward Parsons, deceased, and served to March 4, 1877. 

It was during that memorable winter that the abnormal electoral 
commission was formed by Congress, and the result was the establish- 
ment of Rutherford B. Hayes as President of the United States, not- 
withstanding the fact that Mr. Samuel J. Tilden had received a majority 
of the electoral vote of the States and a large majority of the popular 
vote. 

Mr. Watterson was a delegate from the State at large from Ken- 
tucky in the years 1880 and 1884 to the Democratic National Conven- 
tions. 

In December, 1865, Mr. Watterson was married to Miss Rebecca 
Ewing, the daughter of an eminent lawyer of Nashville, Tenn. She 
is a lady of great refinement and beauty. Their marriage has been an 
exceptionably happy one. They have five children — three boys and 
two girls. 

Mr. Watterson has made three trips to Europe, never forgetting 
while there to regale the readers of the G^//r/r;-/ir'//;7/^7/ with a charming 
narration of the people of the Old World whom he meets, and the 
wonderful scenes that his appreciative eyes behold. At the present 
time he is traveling in Europe with his family, and as usual, his letters 
are sought for and read with great avidity by his admirers, who may be 
found in every State in the Union. 

He is a man of remarkable personal magnetism. I say remarkable 
because his manner is gentle, quiet, almost cold ; but the tones of his 
musical voice, the suavity and dignity of his address, the pertinent 
good sense of his conversation, never fail of the fair fruition, of win- 
ning friends and adherents to his cause, to his opinions, to his party, to 
himself. When the time shall come for Henry Watterson to go hence 
to the undiscovered country, where lie the pleasant fields of eternity, 
those who live after him will tell to the rising generation that they '• will 
never look upon his like again." 

" May he live long and prosper! " is the fervent wish of every friend 
he cherishes, and every American citizen who has the success of the 
Democratic party at heart. 




HON. ALBERT S. WILLIS. 



No man in the city of Louisville is as familiarly known as the 
distinguished subject of this sketch. Rich and poor speak of him as 
though he were a member of their immediate families. Nowadays 
the phrase "Have you seen Albert Willis?" has almost resolved itself 
into an aphorism, implying as it does (especially among office-seekers) 
a conviction that he not only holds the key to success, but that in him 
lie the secret of power and the knowledge of all that is worth know- 
ing. When this term closes, he will have served his constituents for 
ten years, with zeal, ability, and good faith, in the Congress of the 
United States. He entered that body March 4, 1877, subsequent to 
the reconstruction acts, which cost the country nearly as much as did 
our civil war. Mr. Willis participated particularly in the debates upon 
the resumption of silver currency, that being a question which greatly 
agitated the minds of the people, the efficacy of the move upon the 
financial interests of the country involving grave doubts, and being 
the subject of much excited discussion. John Sherman, finally fixing 

(168) 



HON. ALBERT S. WILLIS. 169 

his grasp upon the mooted dollar as firmly as the Goddess of Liberty 
is stamped thereon, formulated the majorities in its favor, and so far 
settled the remonetization of silver. The Chinese question and the 
school prorate of the unlimited moneys in the Treasury among the 
respective States have both been subjects of earnest debate since Mr. 
Willis has been in Congress, and so manifest has been his influence in 
Washington that no doubt there are many of his constituents who re- 
gard him as the central power in that august body politic. They speak 
of the large appropriations which, through his vigilance, he has re- 
ceived for his district, and of the pension applications that had slept 
in the dusty departments for years, until they were resuscitated by his 
magic hand and ]:)laced properly upon the rolls. No effort is too 
laborious for him to make in behalf of his constituency, and indeed 
for years his life has been one of arduous endeavor to serve well the 
people of his district, a duty which I may as well add he has faultlessly 
accomplished. 

He is very quiet and unostentatious in his manner and address, yet 
singularly magnetic. The blind, the halt, and the maimed alike want 
to talk with him — and sometimes even family matters are brought to 
him for discussion as though a word from him could restrain the way- 
ward, comfort the invalid, and banish despair from the hearts of the 
unhappy. If ever a man verified the idyl of " the shining mark" to 
the rising generation, Albert S. Willis is that person. He is no less 
admired than he is beloved as an intelligent, moral, and conscientious 
gentleman. Higher praise than this could not be uttered, and its 
truth renders it the more harmonious to the ear, for it is the voice of 
the people that speaks it of him. When in Washington he neglects 
no duty involved in his position, and even to respond to his manifold 
correspondence is an onerous task ; yet the humblest and poorest of 
his constituents command his jjrompt and respectful attention equally 
with the rich and the influential. 

Albert S. Willis is the son of Doctor Shelby W'illis, who was a 
native Kentuckian and a near relative of Isaac Shelby (for whom he 
was named), who was the first governor of Kentucky. 

Mr. Willis' mother was a Miss Harriet Button, the daughter of 
Captain Button, of Oldham county, Ky. After the death of Doctor 
Willis she married Mr. Clemmons, a lawyer of this city. The subject 
of this sketch was born in Shelby county on the 2 2d day of January, 
1 84 1. He is a congenital Kentuckian. No wonder he possesses so 
many estimable attributes. In i860 he graduated from the High 
School in the city of Louisville. He immediately adopted the law as 
his profession, and after reading a thorough course with his stei)father 



lyo REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

and present law partner, Mr. Clemmons, he entered the senior class 
at the University of Law in Louisville, and graduated from that insti- 
tution, delivering the valedictory of his class in 1865. He then entered 
upon the practice of his profession with Mr. Clemmons, and with him 
enjoyed a fair and profitable clientage until 1870, when Mr. Willis 
entered a hurdle race with nine contestants for the office of county 
attorney. A convention was held and one by one his opponents were 
dropped until he was declared the nominee. In 1874 he was re elected 
without opposition. In 1876, after an active and somewhat acrimo- 
nious canvass, he was nominated for Congress, defeating Doctor Law- 
rence Smith, the distinguished chemist and scientist, who was pos- 
sessed of great wealth, allied to wide influence, and also defeating the 
Hon. Robert Mallory, of Oldham county, who had formerly been in 
Congress, representing a part of the Congressional district. The 
Republicans nominated the Hon. Walter Evans (the ex-Commissioner 
of Internal Revenue), who was gracefully defeated in November, 
1876, at the polls, by the election of Mr. Willis with a complimentary 
majority. Before Mr. Willis had served his first term in Congress, the 
Hon. John Watts Kearney announced himself as a candidate for his 
place. He was known to be immensely rich, and the "bummers" 
commenced without delay to herald his fine parts and peculiar adapta- 
bility for the position. Calls were inserted in the newspapers signed 
with innumerable names, and maps with artistic lines of Kentucky 
and a portion of Tennessee were published at great expense and deliv- 
ered over the district, with fans of variegated patterns and designs as 
bizarre and brilliant as if they had been manufactured in Japan, and 
the name of John Watts Kearney for Congress was on every one of 
them. As the time for the election drew near and the organization was 
formed for the contest, money, to buy the floating votes of the city, 
was planted like gourd seed about the cabin of the old-time Guinea 
negro. The campaign song rang u]jon the air to the tune of " My Old 
Kentucky Home," where it says: 

" We will sing no more by de glimmer ob de moon 
On de bench by de littl^cabin door." 

Money was so plentiful every other bummer seemed to expect to 
move into a palace that mirrored its marble walls in a placid lake, or 
at the least into a "brown-stone front," as soon as the election was 
over. At this juncture of affairs, Colonel Blanton Duncan fired a 
soap bubble into mid-air by way of announcing himself as a candidate 
for Congress. His speeches and peculiar appliances for conducting 
his novel and brilliant cam|)aign received his undivided and individual 
attention, winding up by i)etitioning the United States district judge of 



HON. ALUERT S. WILLIS. I7I 

Kentucky to appoint United States supervisors to prevent the whole- 
sale purchase of suffrage at the polls. A picture of Colonel Duncan 
and his "lay-out" (as it is called in modern parlance) conducting that 
famous campaign would fill a i)age in Josh Billings' Almanac worthy a 
first class chromo-lithograph. 

Colonel Horace Scott was the Republican nominee. But despite 
money and appliances and ])arty power, Mr. Willis was elected by a 
handsome majority. His third race was made against Judge William 
B. Hoke, who withdrew, and a portion of the Democratic party nomi- 
nated Major Thomas H. Hays, in whom all the attributes of the gen- 
tleman center in one grand and refined gem of a man. Colonel 
Thomas E. Burns was the Republican nominee. Mr. Willis, howe\er, 
was again re-elected. For hij fourth term Colonel Silas F. Miller was 
the Republican candidate — always with the same result, in the favor of 
Willis. His fifth (and present) term the Hon. A. E. Willson, with 
confidence in his election, was pitted by the Republicans against him, 
and, as a consequence, the fate of all his political predecessors became 
his at the election in November, 1SS4; but in 1886, in a similar asi)i- 
ration, Mr. Willis was himself defeated by Hon. Asher G. Caruth in 
the primary election, which took place on October 9th. 

Mr. Willis was an assistant Democratic elector for the State at large 
in what was called the " Greeley race," and by his arguments in many 
of the towns in the State he made for himself the reputation of being 
familiar with national politics long before he became a member of 
Congress. Mr. Willis has strong adherents among the fair sex who 
invariably espouse his interests when he is a candidate, and while the 
cold, chilly winds of November whistle without, they manage to "make 
Rome howl" around the hearthstone, and the promise to vote for 
Willis is much more efficacious in restoring peace than the tempting 
anticipation of a sealskin sack, with a vote for the opposing candidates. 
Mr. Willis married the daughter of Mr. W. H. Dulaney, of Eouisville, 
Ky., one of our wealthiest and staunchest citizens. He is of medium 
height and spare build. His eyes are gray; so is his hair. His man- 
ner is gentle, his voice persuasive. In brief, he is "never afraid to 
talk out in church" in regard to national. State, and municipal affairs. 
He is a bona fide Democrat and advocates its doctrines with serious- 
ness and effect. Mr. Caruth, in defeating him in this district, has 
won a victory worthy of record, for among his constituents Mr. Willis 
seemed to have gained a right to the title of "Willis, the invincible." 




HON. LEANDER COBB WOOLFOLK. 



When one considers everything in connection with the history of 
Kentuclcy — from her earHest settlement to the present time — the savage 
warfare within her borders — the many disadvantages under which she 
labored before becoming identified as a State, with rights and privileges 
of her own, and the power to repel infringements and op])ressions on 
whatever hand they might be presented — the splendid people who vol- 
untarily cast their lot with her, to rise or fall, as she might do, in the 
union of brave spirits, who had crossed the ocean in order to maintain 
])rinciples and opinions in the matters of liberty, free si)eech, and relig- 
ion — when one considers all these things, I say, it seems a natural 
secpience — arguing from cause to effect — that such noble endeavors 
and heroic courage sliould still be apparent in the speech and action 
of descendants, even to the third and fourth generation, of the grand 
peo])le who settled Kentucky over a century ago. It seems natural 
that in their proud natures and as])iring minds they should still exhibit 
something of the primal strength and ennobling genius of those ances- 
tors who not only left them land and renown as rich inheritance, but 
made Kentucky a star among States — a splendid Commonwealth which 

(.172) 



HON. LEANDER COBB WOOLFOLK. 1 73 

has Stood lor lo! these many years, hke Alinerva among the godsl In 
the midst of wars and the cahnness of peace alike able to defend her 
honor and to uphold her principles in the face of the civilized world. 
P'rom border to border, it is the same old story — the best blood of 
^"irginia, of North and of South Carolina, of Maryland, of Georgia, 
and of Florida, have mingled with each other in the veins of the jjres. 
ent inhabitants of Kentucky. It is not strange, therefore, that the 
chronicler finds themes for his praise and admiration in the lives of 
those who represent us, abroad and at home, who everywhere clothe 
themselves with the mantle of honor, and who bear the palm of jnib- 
lic respect in their stainless hands. 

Kentucky gentlemen as a rule are uni)retentious and unostentatious. 
They know well who they are, and to what they are entitled ; and if not 
willingly ceded to them, they know how to wring that res])ect from 
the general world which is their due. 

Oftener is it true than otherwise that we find men of the most brill- 
iant parts indifierent to their greatness and nobility, and as modest in 
asserting one or the other as wayside violets are shy about seeking the 
sunlight, when they grow beside the blatant buttercup and the flaunt- 
ing scarlet of the cardinal flower. Indeed, such gentlemen take 
greater pleasure in pressing their friends forward to receive the meed 
of jjublic praise and emolument than they do in being themselves 
heralded as worthy to wear the crown of general favor, and to guard 
the throne of the people with the grace and courage of cavaliers. 

Such a man is the Hon. Leander Cobb Woolfolk, the subject of my 
present sketch. He is the fifth son of Thomas J. Woolfolk and Ade- 
line Caldwell, both of whom belonged to the best families in the whole 
country, Miss Caldwell being a native of Woodford county, Ky., she 
having been born in that county in 1813, and a descendant of the 
family of John C. Calhoun. 

Mr. Thomas J. Woolfolk was born in Orange county, \a.., in 1799, 
but when he was only a year oM his father moved with his family to 
Kentucky — emigrated to the new and wonderful land about which so 
many stories were afloat — resolved to share the fate of good or evil 
fortune with the valiant pioneers. This was in 1800. 

They settled in that part of the State which Avas afterward erected 
into the county of Oldham in 1823, being named in honor of Colonel 
William Oldham, of Revolutionary fame, who continued in active ser- 
vice until the spring of 1779, when he resigned and emigrated to the 
Falls of the Ohio, now Louisville ; but he commanded a regiment of 
Kentucky militia in the memorable battle of St. Clair's defeat, Novem- 
ber 4, 1 791, where he fell — killed by the Indians. 



174 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACK.ERS. 

The face of the country along the Ohio river and Eighteen-mile 
creek, and in the up[)er part of the county adjoining Trimble, is hilly 
and broken ; the remainder of the county is gently undulating, and 
generally good, arable land, based on limestone. The principal prod- 
ucts and exports are wheat, hemp, tobacco, hogs, and cattle, and in 
this rich portion of the State — rich in natural adaptability of soil and 
resource — the Woolfolks cast their life lines, and from that time to the 
l)resent day they have been people of influence and power and position 
in the community in which they lived. Many of them — for the Vir- 
ginia family was a large and prosperous one — moved into other coun- 
ties, as did also some of the sons of Thomas J. Woolfolk, after they 
arrived at man's estate; but Oldham has ever been regarded as the 
"vine and fig tree" of the clan. Whatever places of public trust 
they have been called upon to fill they have done so honorably and 
well, and in the councils of the State their voices have at all times 
rung out with no "uncertain sound;" and the principles they advo- 
cated and the opinions they entertained have ever been marked by 
noble earnestness, purity, and honest endeavor to sustain the right. 
Joseph B. Woolfolk, who represented Meade county in the lower 
house of the General Assembly from 1865 to 1867, and S. H. Woolfolk, 
who filled the same position for tlie people of Hopkins county from 
187 1 to 1S73, were men of spirit and brilliance; and record gives a not 
less prominent posidon to Hon. George Woolfolk, of Shelby county, 
who was a member of the House of Representatives in the State Legis- 
lature from 1S22 to 1S28. Thomas Woolfolk, who represented Owen 
county in 1829 to 1831, was also a man of mark and acknowledged 
ability. 

Thomas J. Woolfolk, of Oldham, was always the staunch friend of 
General Humphrey Marshall. He supported him in every aspiration 
for public office, and was his chosen and "bosom friend," as a /f7//i,'. 
They frequenll}' took counsel together in matters of ])ublic interest, 
and General Marshall's faith in his sound judgment and good sense 
was often a subject of comment among their mutual friends. What 
Woolfolk said .or thought always had its weight with General Mar.shall, 
and he seldom demurred from the strength and wisdom of his friend's 
opinions. 

Teander Cobb Wcjolfolk was born in Oldham county, Ky., May 
27, 1843. He graduated at the Washington and Jefferson College 
in Pennsylvania in 1866. carrxing off one of the honors of his class. 
In 1868 he attended the University of Law in Louisville, Ky., and in 
1870 he entered upon the practice of his ]irofession in the same city. 
He was recognized as a man of great j)romise antl brilliant ability from 



HON. LEANDER COBB WOOLFOLK. 1 75 

the inception of his aj^pearance before the courts as a practitioner. 
In 1878 he was elected county attorney of Jeffersdn county. In 1882 
he was re-elected without opposition to the same prominent position. 
In 1886 he was again re-elected without Democratic opposition, Init 
he defeated the Republican candidate for the office by the handsome 
majority of fourteen thousand votes. 

In 1877 Mr. Woolfolk won the hand of Miss Fanny H. Owen in 
marriage, whicli was a signal admission of his elotpience and ])Ower of 
fascination, for Miss Owen was herself very popular in society and a 
lady of very brilliant accomplishments and much personal beauty. 
They have one child, a bright and charming little girl — Mattie Lea 
Woolfolk — who is the pride and delight of her i)arents, and who gives 
promise of one day being an ornament to society and a blessing to the 
hearts that now cherish her in her youth. 





COLONEL BENNETT H. YOUNG. 



Colonel Bennett H. Young is the third son of Robert Young, Esq. 
His mother's maiden name was Miss Josephine Henderson. Both 
father and mother are congenital Kentuckians, and the names of their 
ancestors are among the most honorable and prominent of which the 
annals of the State can boast. They were all devout Presbyterians. 

The subject of this sketch was born in Jessamine county, Ky., on 
the 25th day of May, 1843. The earlier part of his education was 
acquired at Bethel Academy, in Nicholasville, Jessamine county, Ky. 
In i36i, however, he matriculated at Centre College, Danville, Ky. ; 
and in 1862, affected by the spirit of the times and the ardor of the 
age, with which the surroundings of his hallowed home were no less 
affected than our entire country, Bennett H. "\'oung found it no difficult 
duty, as his youthful mind then dictated, to drift into the army of the 
Confecjeracy, enlisting in Company " B," commanded by Captain Will- 
iam Lewis, of Fayette county, Ky., under Colonel Leroy S. Clarke, 
of the Eighth Kentucky Regiment, Morgan's Cavalry. 

(176) 



COLONEL BENNETT H. YOUNG. 177 

When General Morgan was captured at Columbiana, Saline county, 
Ohio,Mn August, 1863, Bennett H. Young was with him, and was still 
with him when he was taken to Columbus, Ohio, and there impris- 
oned. 

From now on, until after and for quite a period succeeding t'.ie 
close of this most unfortunate civil struggle, it was Colonel Young's 
lot to play a more or less conspicuously prominent part. 

After a brief confinement in Camp Chase, he was removed to 
Camp Douglas, Chicago, from where he escaped in January, 1S64, 
going to Canada, where he arrived too late to pass down the St. Law- 
rence before the close of navigation, and fearing to pass through 
Kentucky in face of the protests of his friends, where military execu- 
tions were rife, he at once matriculated in the University of Toron- 
to, remaining until April and passing a highly creditable examination. 
He was placed in command of a number of escaped Confederate 
prisoners, and took passage on the first boat going down the river in 
April, and sailed for the West Indies, in order to catch a blockade 
runner for either Charleston or Wilmington. 

The blockader went in under fire. Several of the crew were 
killed, and the sailors were so demoralized as to give up all obedience 
to commands. The cool head and fearless courage of the young 
Confederate soldier were in this moment of peril exceedingly valua- 
ble. With almost reckless exposure, he promptly took the post from 
which a seaman had the moment before been killed, assisted the 
officers in giving proper signals, and thus saved the vessel from capt- 
ure or destruction. The gallant stranger was at once offered a most 
tempting and lucrative appointment in the blockade-runner service, 
but declined it. 

Appointed to a first lieutenancy in the Confederate service, he was 
sent to Canada, and subsequently engaged in many daring and haz- 
ardous enterprises, the last of which was the St. Albans raid. 

Subsequent to this, the life of Lieutenant Young was one of 
remarkable and thrilling experience. Details have l)een erstwhile 
related. They concerned a career in which courage, coolness, dan- 
ger, hardihood, and resolution played equal i)arts, where youthhood 
never forgot itself; but now. in the mature judgment of manhood, 
not even this modest man's bright boys and girls ever hear on his 
part any allusion to the gallant deeds of the past recorded history 
given in a cause in which he then believed, and they therefore need 
now find no more than a passing mention here. 

His disabilities having been removed by the later amnesty procla- 
mation in 1868, he leturned from Europe, where he had studied s-^v- 

12 



178 REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 

eral years at the Irish and Scotch universities, taking first honor in 
the law course and third distinction in the Hterary department of the 
Queen's University. His letters and magazine articles while abroad 
served in large part to meet his expenses, and were widely read and 
copied. 

He commenced practicing law in Louisville in 1868, and soon built 
up a large and lucrative practice. He was much of his professional 
life associated with St. John Boyle, the firm being Young & Boyle. 
Both members of the partnership became interested in railways, a 
connection which has been of vital importance to Louisville. 

With Mr. Boyle, he first constructed the Louisville, New Albany 
& St. Louis Air Line railroad, a very difficult operation at the time, 
the success of which assured a fair prestige. A more serious and 
important scheme followed, no less than a plan to buy and revive and 
reconstruct an almost dead line — the Louisville, New Albany & Chi- 
cago railroad. Realizing the resources of the rich territory terminated 
and touched otherwise by this line, Colonel Young conceived the 
idea, in concert with R. S. Veech, Esq., of securing control of the 
Louisville, New Albany & Chicago road. Colonel Young designed 
the entire plan, and with the usual felicitous result, for it was success- 
ful and highly contributory to Louisville and her commercial interests. 
In 1S83, Colonel Young became its president, and so remained until 
the early part of 1884. During his management it was successful 
beyond all anticipation; but his "peculiar" views about operating 
trains on Sunday caused some dissatisfaction, when he retired, with 
his usual vim and independence adhering to his own opinions, he 
being emphatically one of those men who, knowing he is right, yields 
neither to the blandishments of friends nor tlie opposition of foes. 

In October, 1885, he undertook the construction of the great canti- 
lever bridge from Louisville, Ky. , to New Albany, Ind. After being 
beset by many difficulties (owing to the amount of capital involved 
pro and con), the stu]iendous work was completed on the 15th day of 
July, 1886. The cost involved was jjrobably a million and a half of 
dollars, and it is past question the foremost structure of its kind in the 
country. Of this corporation Colonel Young is jjresident at the pres- 
ent time. 

He claims for his "monument" the Bellewood Seminary and the 
Kentucky Normal School, at Anchorage, Ky. , of which he is now 
regent, and which is at this time the leading school of its kind in the 
Southern Presbyterian church. His friends know him to be generous 
and whole-souled; in point of fact, as a prince is supposed to be, and 
he made almost the entire endowment out of his own private purse. 



COLONEL BENNETT H. YOUNG. 1 79 

He has always been the moving spirit of the Polytechnic Society, and 
to him it owes its present distinguished position. It constitutes the 
remainder of the old public library. The sheriff had secured this 
property (the old public library) and was about to sell it for debt. 
Colonel Young promptly went on a bond for a large sum of money, 
and by his own noble action, in connection with Dr. D. S. Reynolds, 
persuaded Dr. Robinson and other gentlemen to join him, and, 
together, they stood for forty thousand dollars. They placed tlie society 
on a firm basis, paid off its debts, formulated a series of public lectures 
to be given by scientific men, and enlarged its collection of valuable 
books. Now it has an income sufficient to support it and to maintain 
its art gallery, its lectures, and its free library. So much for having a 
genuine, noble-spirited, large-brained, kind-hearted man at the front 
of an affair involving public weal, and which will redound with the 
greatest good to the largest number. Sucli a man is Bennett H. 
Young. And sure am I that the citizens of Louisville will bear me 
out in the assertion, for he has done her incalculable benefits. He is 
is in all respects a model gentleman, and possesses not only the regard 
of the community in which he resides, but the respect and confidence 
of the leading railroad magnates of the United States and of Europe, 
which is the handsomest guarantee of ability in the world, for they 
have among them not only the most successful but some of the most 
able and cultured of which the Western continent can boast 

The highest ambition in Colonel Young's life is said to be to have 
a happy home and to lend a helping hand to aid the moral and the 
material welfare of the citizens of his native State. To do this he 
spends time, energy, fortune. No one will deny that he is the most 
tirelessly energetic, enthusiastic, and progressively public-spirited man 
Kentucky now has, or, for matter of that, ever had. He is a most 
remarkable and usefully-necessary combination, having the ability of 
a Carlisle, the acumen and strong business judgment of a James Guth- 
rie, led on by the dash of a Sheridan and tempered with the inherited 
pure Christian spirit of what man has most to thank God for — noble 
parents. 

The enterprises now engaging Colonel Young's attention involve 
the development of Eastern Kentucky, a region richer than Pennsyl- 
vania or Alabama, and the construction of the Louisville Southern 
railroad. The last line is the hardest fought enterprise of his life, but 
it is now beyond the injury of its opponents, and its completion gives 
to Louisville for a comparatively nominal cost all the benefits of a 
competitive grand trunk line to the South, a territory of which hith- 
erto a single line virtually controlled the transportation rates. 



i8o 



REPRESENTATIVE CORN-CRACKERS. 



No public enterprise of later years has failed to receive his help 
and assistance. Unselfish, charitable, modest, and yet a man of 
aggression and conviction, he commands the respect and confidence 
of the entire State. Colonel Young is a tremendous power in any 
contest; a ready fighter, an able organizer, quick to think and act, full 
of resource and tact, with a bulldog courage that never recognizes 
defeat, his services are always in demand. One of the shrewdest poli- 
ticians of a bordering State, who knew him well, said: "Young in a 
State like mine, in a hard contest, would be worth ten thousand votes." 
The life and work of such a man in a community yield immense 
returns. One single enterprise has removed from the commerce of 
Louisville a tax of over two hundred thousand dollars per annum, and 
the construction of the Louisville Southern will add millions to the 
wealth and trade of that city. Doctor E. D. Standiford estimated 
that the building of the Southern would increase tlie taxable values 
of Louisville twenty per cent. 

Colonel Young has never offered for any political office. He could 
have almost any position he would seek, but he prefers to devote him- 
self exclusively to the material development of his city and State, and 
in this Louisville and Kentucky are gready gainers. He is a fluent 
and forcible .speaker. Take him in a "rough-and-tumble" fight 
before the masses and he has few equals and no superior in Kentucky. 
He has a rare combination of force, logic, and fun, and he never 
fails to catch, hold, and convince the crowd. A distinguished judge 
once said of him : " He is the most terrific man on the last speech I 
ever heard." 

Li 1866, Colonel Young was married to Miss Mattie R., the eldest 
daughter of Rev. Stuart Robinson, D. D., the distinguished Presby- 
terian divine. They have quite a family of children, and their home 
is noted for its culture, refinement, and hospitality. 




MISCELLANEOUS 



A VIEW OF LOUISVILLE AS A CITY AND A HOME. 




Courier-Journal Buildinq. 



Even to the habitual writer for 
the press, sometimes, the idea of 
communicating thought to the popu- 
lace is one which retjuires more 
than ordinary reflection, for the rea- 
son that it is not everybody who can 
successfully cater to the public taste 
and awaken interest in the pro- 
duction. Language is a vehicle 
which conveys ideas, and thought 
must necessarily be the germ of the 
product which becomes the freight 
of the conveyance. For this reason, 
when one takes up a pen for the 
purpose of writing an article which 
will please, one often lays it down 
again with the sober conviction that 
it is a Herculean task. 
This is my mood to-day. And, however generous my intention 
toward my readers, however enthusiastic my feelings over my chosen 
subject, so much is to be said that I feel myself to be but scantily sup- 
plied with eloquence commensurate with the occasion. 

Louisville is considered, by tourists and cosmopolitans, as an over- 
grown village, which can boast of but few of the facilities that other 
cities claim. Yet, as a place of residence, none can compare with it, 
for the reason that it is quiet beyond many of the smaller hamlets 
throughout the State. And yet, Louisville is the home of every nation- 
ality, and they are permitted, under our liberal system of government, 
to worship the great God of the universe according to the dictates of 
their own consciences, and to delve out an existence by the sweat of 
their faces, as required by His Holy Word. 

One can sit in his office here, and, in the course of the day, hear 
the tongues of the Saxon, Teuton, Gaul, the liquid melody of the Ital- 
ian, the sibilant music of the Spaniard, the brogue of the Celt, the 
harsh mingling of consonants ])eculiar to the Russian, and the breezy 
chatter of the Scot, all jumbled together like the tongues that wagged 
during the erection of the Tower of Babel. 

Louisville has charms that fascinate all who become actiuainted 

(183) 



184 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

with her people. Her society may be likened to that which blessed 
Athens in the days of Demosthenes and attracted Cicero from the city 
of Rome, when the genius of its men and women shone out upon the 
world like the sun smiling amid the angry storm clouds. 

This is the city, of all cities, where the races clasp hands as friends, 
and are always ready to put down wrong wherever it lifts its hydra 
head. Our religious sects are the most tolerant and kindly-disposed 
toward each other. Our commercial men are emulous of success, but 
the carping jealousies, sometimes found amid that class of citizens, is 
never noticed among them. Our legal fraternity boasts some of the 
most brilliant men in Kentucky. Our public edifices are fine. The 
Cathedral is noticeably grand, when compared with the churches of 
the New World. The Court-House is perfect in its various compart- 
ments. It is a study to visit our Post-Office, and see the thorough 
system inaugurated in every department. Our hotels are par ex- 
cellence. Our places of amusement are popular throughout tlie State 
as well as the city, being well built and well conducted. Our police 
is vigilant, our city fathers careful of our interests and the progress of 
the city in all that is advantageous and ennobling in its development. 
The public schools are all that we could desire, and the dissemination 
of learning among all classes of our citizens, through their instru- 
mentality, is highly gratifying to the public at large, and to every pri- 
vate citizen who takes pride in his city and his State. Our art studios 
are very fine. Our libraries are social institutions, and reflect credit 
on the city. We have eight lines of railway; two iron bridges spanning 
the Ohio, connecting Louisville with two Indiana cities; and an Opera 
Festival and Exposition. Our "measure" seems full. 

New Orleans may boast a gayer population, New York a "faster" 
one, Chicago a wickeder one. Baltimore may bear the ])alm for epi- 
cureanism and St. Louis for progression, but we bear the palm (and 
we intend to bear it!) for the refinement of our people, for their intel- 
ligence, and the lofty cast of our society, as well as the open-handed 
charity and hospitality of its o])ulent members and the gentle spirit of 
fraternity which rules them. Our press is popular, and conducted with 
tliat lofty si)irit of ])rinciple and patriotism which deserves the most 
generous recognition from the State and country at large. 

Search the wide world over, we know of no city where we would 
prefer to live, and none where we would prefer to die, above or be- 
yond the City of the Falls. Its pleasures are the jnu-est, its emolu- 
ments are the noblest, and the peace to be foimd, at the last, in our 
beautiful sanctuary of the dead, would, no doubt, be sweeter here 
than we could hope to find elsewhere. 



A EULOGIUM 



Pronounced in the House of Representatives in 1 873 on 

the Resolution to Remove the Remains of General 

John Adair to the Frankfort Cemetery 

for Re-interment.* 

John Adair was born in Chester county, S. C. , 
in the year 1758. His childhood had its full quota 
of smiles and tears — its freedom from care and 
consequent happiness — as does the childhood of 
nearly all who live, let their days be passed under 
the golden roofs of kings' palaces, or with the tent 
of the vagrant gypsy above them. 

And his manhood had its triumphs and its fail- 
ures, its disappointments and successes, as do the 
lives of all men who live in the world, and of it 
form a part. But that the triumphs were more 
numerous than the failures, and the successes 
more frequent than the disappointments, the brill- 
iant record of his political and public career bears 
ample testimony. 
In all positions, military or civil, he discharged his duties faithfully 
and well. Born amid* the thrilling incidents of the Revolution, and 
his character formed amid those stirring events, when the tocsin of war 
was sounded, when the ear-piercing fife and the roll of the thunder- 
ing drum called on patriots for decisive action, he was in the vanguard, 
whether it was to do battle with treacherous Indians, or route the scar- 
let coats of the Britishers under Jackson at New Orleans, or under 
Shelby amid the Canadian wilds! 

And ao-ain, we see in the annals of our Commonwealth, where he 
served as a United States Senator from 1S05 to 1806. In the years 
1 83 1 and 1833 inclusive, he was a representative in the Twenty-second 
Congress, and last, and highest of all, he was elected governor of Ken- 
tucky in 1820. And yet, after the hardships and trials, after the glory 
and grandeur, the pomp and the circumstance, the closing of the record 
reads patheticoally enough: "He died at Harrodsburg, Ky., on the 
19th day of May, 1S40, and was buried three miles east of said town." 
"And was buried!" ***** 




=:--The resolution was adopted, and a magnificent monument now marks his last resting-place 
in the cemetery at Frankfort, Ky., the epitaph it contains having been written by the author. 

(185) 



i86 



MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 



This was the last item to be added to the long list of a good, brave- 
life's deeds ! This was the ' ' finis " to the record of one of Kentucky's 
most chivalrous and distinguished sons ! 

The book was closed and clasped. ^ ^ -^ 

Is it strange that stragglers up the steep heights of honor and 
renown should pause and— thinking of it all— give one heartfelt sigh 
to his memory ? 

Is it not simply a just deed to lay this immortelle upon his grave ? 
Was he not an eminent statesman ? Was he not a distinguished sol- 
dier? Was he not a gentleman of patrician blood, who filled many 
honorable stations in the public service ? And does not that public, 
indeed, owe to him the reverence of an " In Memoriam ?" 

It seems like presumption in me to even attempt to pass an enco 
mium upon him ! His life was a shining light to his country a quarter 
of a century ago, and his record survives the dust of time and forget- 
fulness, and is yet a beacon star to the loyal ambitions among men, let 
them hail from what State or section they may— North, South East or 
West! 

And, therefore, be it known, I come not to do honor to the ashes of 
dead Caesar to-day, but justice ! 

During a former term of the Legislature a fund was voted by the 
State to be appropriated to the re-interment of Kentucky's deceased 
governors in the cemetery of the capital. 

With but few e.xceptions this has been done, and these were left by 
request of the surviving relatives who found a nameless comfort in 
the nearness of the "loved and lost." 

This exemption, however, is not noted in the case of Governor 
Adair, for his estate has passed from the scions of his house into the 
guardianship of strangers. And yet the old hero sleeps undisturbed 
in his narrow home while the blue, jewel-lighted skies arch above him 
and God keeps his niche in heaven. 

Why is this ? 

Why has John Adair been left to sleep the sleep of the "undis- 
tinguished many" when marble stela and shining shafts lift themselves 
above the nameless and unknown ? 

Why IS he not also conveyed to that "eternal cami)ing-ground"' 
where silent tents are spread 

" And glory guards with solemn round 
The bivouac of the dead ? " 

It is true that his has been a quiet sleep, and old Mercer is proud 
to hold him in her heart, but Kentuckians should remember to do spe- 
cial honor to the memory of one who so honored the Commonwealth 



A EULOGIUM. 



187 



by his faithful services in peace and war. And even though they 
sepulcher at the capital only a handful of dry, white dust, heaped over 
with a mound of grass, they should do it reverently, gratefully, in 
memory of John Adair, for, in the language of the immortal bard — 

" On the earth there breathed not a man more worthy of a woman's 
love, a soldier's trust, a subject's reverence, a king's esteem, the whole 
world's admiration ! " 

" Nor should his glory be forgot 
While Fame her record keeps, 
Or Honor points the hallowed spot 
Where Valor proudly sleeps." 




A HUMOROUS PROPOSITION 




To Act as Umpire in tFie Controversy between Governor 

Proctor Knott and the Hon Milton J. Durham, 

Controller of the U. S. Treasury. 

As a peaceable citizen of 
Kentucky I gratuitously vol- 
unteer my services as umpire 
between the Governor of Ken- 
tucky and Hon. Milton J. 
Durham, the Controller of the 
Treasury. I do this in the 
> kindest spirit, hoping thereby 
'^ to prevent the shedding of 
much human gore, which 
might occur through the acci- 
dental (?) discharge of the famous Kentucky " hoss-pistol," it being 
quite likely that either gentleman (according to the social code) may 
arm himself with the said dangerous toy, forgetting, in the excitement 
of the moment, that there are certain stringent laws in regard to carry- 
ing concealed deadly "weepins" in this State. 

This unfortunate conflict, coming, as it does, in the wake of the 
matrimonial alliance of the President, casts a gloom upon the hearts 
that desired to take joy in the general dissemination of happiness inci- 
dent to the national nuptials— even as the small cloud, *' not larger 
than a man's hand," may overcast the blue of heaven until it darkens 
with the wrath of the hurricane. 

Governor Knott, in his first open letter to the controller, complains 
of the hitter's murder of the king's English (or at least the stab given 
to it by him which may prove mortal), the cruel wound having been 
inflicted in a letter to Esquire Gill, of Shelby county, Ky. , which was 
meant to be "private," but which found its way into print through 
means not made public — as yet. 

It is apparent that the " Guvner" has taken umbrage at the Hon. 
Milton J. 's aspirations toward the position now filled by His Excellency, 
for he has unsheathed his matchless sword of eloquence, which, if not 
made of veritable steel, can at least create blue lightning, having been 
dipped in virulent satire which has endowed it with the fine quality 
of a first-class jack-knife — to cut both ways. 

(i88) 



A HUMOROUS PROPOSITION. 189 

It seems that the " (xuvner," with the characteristic pride of a Ken- 
tuckian, feels deeply aggrieved that a gentleman who holds so jjromi- 
nent a position as that of Controller of the United States Treasury- 
should express his patriotic sentiments in bad grammar to tlie brave 
and sympathetic people of Kentucky, and, moreover, by innuendo 
intimated that /lis administration was not a gigantic failure, l.)ut, from 
an ('.V pivh' \ie\v, a diininiifive failure, on account of his lack of execu- 
tive ability. In ante-bellum days party leaders could be discriminately 
or indiscriminately discussed, their acts being praised or censured by 
individual or general voice ; but, according to the changes in the 
natural order of public affairs, this course, being no longer sanctioned 
by custom, is no longer admissible. The Hon. Milton J- seems indeed 
to have regarded the administration of State affairs quite in the light of 
a child's toy balloon. To touch it with a needle or any sharp instru- 
ment allows the gas which has inflated its transparent proportions to 
escape, after which, even for amusement, it is not worth a tinker's 
damn. It seems that in addition to his sub rosa criticism of Governor 
Knott, Judge Durham proves himself no disciple of lazy, delightful, 
kind-hearted Izaak Walton ; in brief, he does not allow himself to be 
governed by the accepted rules of all good fishermen. Big fish are 
allowed to take the entire reel before efforts are ever made to land 
them. 

He seems, too, to have forgotten that he who proves too much 
proves nothing. In retaliation for the Punic faith with which his confi- 
dence was treated, he intimates in unmistakable terms that Governor 
Knott holds his office as Hayes held the Presidency, /. r. , by chicanery 
and fraud, and he suggests that if His Excellency had ceded the spoils 
to the conqueror, when he saw that the Hon. Thomas Laurens Jones 
had received the nomination, he would have forsaken his thirst for 
office, have stepped to the footlights on that memorable day in Lieder- 
kranz Hall, and have declined to accept a nomination obtained by 
strategic skill, and not by the voice of a majority of the delegates. 
While the honorable gentleman by these timely suggestions proves 
that, in his judgment, justice should be done though the heavens 
descend, there are those who be denizens in this "Grand Old Com- 
monwealth" who are not slow in making acknowledgment that: 

"Of all the beautiful pictures 
That hang on memory's wall," 

The one of the distinguished representatives of the Eighth Congres- 
sional District, baptizing his pedal extremities in the wash-bowl allotted 
to the faces of gentlemen in the committee-room, is perhaps the most 



19° MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

beautiful. By such act, it is true, he was a faithful exponent of the 
creed that *• cleanliness is next to godliness," but the abhorrence and 
disgust of the dilettante Northern Lights taught him the sad lesson that 
a man may " shake the dust from his feet" in leaving his native State, 
but he could not dispose of alluvium in the speckled wash-basin of a 
committee-room without at least running some risk of cold — shoulder. 
So extreme has been my anxiety in regard to the issue of this wordy 
warfare that it has led me— I frankly confess it— to seek a council with 
that intellectual giant of Oldham, General Tom A. Harris, who has 
traveled in every clime and been a beacon in every refined society (I 
hope the compositor will not make a mistake and print this word 
"deacon" instead of "beacon!!"), and he has timidly suggested the 
intervention of some spirit willing to face the "music" of whizzing 
bullets, Gading guns, and other instruments of ancient and modern 
warfare that may be in vogue in the way of battering rams, lances, 
spears, rapiers, batde-axes, tomahawks, and "sich like," and dispos- 
sessing them of these side-arms restore repose to the public mind, and 
peace and harmony, and above all, the usual amount of homogeneity 
to the Democradc party. Kentucky loves those of her sons who are 
capable of deeds of disinterested valor. Therefore, I offer myself, in 
the spirit of Curtius, the brave Roman youth, to fill this hiatus which 
threatens to divide the interests of the Democratic party in Kentucky. 




^^^L^ 




A LONG TIME IN SADDLE. 



The Longest Ride Made by Marshall's Cavalry During 

the War. 

In the year of 1863, on the loth day of August, the order to report at 
once to headquarters was received bv Marshall's Cavalry which, at the 
time, under command of Gqneral Geo. B. Hodge, was stationed at 
Giles Court House, or Parisburg, as it is sometimes called (being the 
post village of Giles county, Va.), situated on the left bank of the 
New river, and surrounded by as picturesque mountain scenery as may 
be found anywhere in the world. Parisburg is two hundred and forty 
miles west of Richmond, and nearly a hundred miles north-west from 
Abingdon. 

In response to the command, the " Cavilery," as Morey (now of the 
Cynthiana News) called it, prepared for the march that was to lead 
them to the gory fields of Chickamauga, thence around Rosecrans 
to McMinnville, which was the base of General Rosecrans' supplies, 
while his army occupied Chattanooga, and I believe I can truthfully 
assert that General Wheeler, with his cavalry (a large body at the time !), 
destroyed more Government stores than were captured on any raid dur- 
ing the war. There were thousands of pounds of bacon, large quantities 
of tlour, sugar, molasses, coffees, teas, and ordnance stores, and hospital 
accouterments. Bombshells were bursted by the hundreds, whose 
reverberations could be heard for miles around as if a great battle were 

(191) 



192 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

being fought; everything was destroyed that could not be carried 
along, or sent forward in the army wagons that were captured at the 
same time and place. From McMinnville the march was continued to 
Murfreesboro, recrossing the Tennessee river at Muscle Shoals, and 
thence to Courtland, Ala., General Wheeler making his headquarters 
at the residence of a lady by the name of Miss Jones, whom he 
subsequently married, and in passing, it may not be inappropriate 
to mention the fact he still resides there, and represents that district 
in Congress. A lengthy and historic ride was that which began in 
August and brought us to the month of November of that same year. 
And all the while the cavalry had been constantly engaged in making 
forced marches and continuous skirmishes, including the three days' 
battle of Chickamauga, the history of which has long since been given 
to the world, painted in the glowing colors of victory, and the terse 
etching of defeat by the ablest writers in both armies ; and, therefore, 
I forbear waving my small ensign in memory of it, preferring to call 
attention to those points in history which are usually overlooked by the 
dignified writer who hopes to enfold his equally dignified thoughts in 
vellum and Russia leather, and neglected by the facile pen of the cor- 
respondent who is fond of personalities in which generals and colonels 
are conspicuous — viz : To the poor horses and the " little Confederate 
mule,'" and the equally poor and stubborn private soldier who "fought, 
bled, and died" a thousand times over in the service of the "Lost 
Cause " they so dearly loved for itself alone. I occupied the position 
of assistant adjutant general at the time, and had ample opportunity to 
grapple the details of camp-life fully, and noting the condition of both 
man and beast, to sympathize with and appreciate privations they 
endured. The weather was excessively dry, no rain having fallen for 
days, and the dust would rise like moving clouds above the cavalry as 
they marched in column ; indeed, so dense was it that each army could 
easily locate the other by this dusky signal in the heavens. Every- 
where the country suffered from the drouth; accommodations were 
almost unattainable, the principal articles of food being green corn and 
sweet potatoes, gathered from the half-tilled fields, and sometimes 
eaten raw as we rode along the dusty highways or roasted when we 
encamped; while, to lend diversity to the entertainment, occasionally 
a fat hog would be murdered with malice aforethought, by some stray 
picket "hid in a thicket," and when the murky mantle of darkness 
covered the world, the brown breast of Mother Earth was the softest 
])illow on which her rebellious children could lay their weary heads. 
This i)aucity (to the soldier at least) of all that made life endurable 
was the general condition of the country from the narrows of New 



A LONG TIME IN SADDLE. 



193 



river via Abingdon, Va. , Bristol, Jonesboro, Greenville, Sevierville, 
and Hamilton to Athens, Cleveland, Tenn., and Dalton, Ga ; thence 
to Rome, Ga. , and back to Cottonport, east of the Hiawassee river, 
at which point the Confederate cavalry crossed to capture Rosecrans* 
supplies. Then the condition of affairs was changed for the soldier. 
Rations were drawn, and the "inner man" was satisfied, especially 
with the decoctions of the coffee bean that were boiled in large kettles, 
and made strong as " black drops," and served effectually to aid him 
in enduring the exhaustion to the nervous tissues superinduced by 
the wearisome marches on horseback, tlian which nothing can so 
wear flesh and spirit, many men sleeping in their saddles. 

Amid the privations, and the wear and tear on body and soul, there 
still were, even then, the most amusing incidents that gave food for 




The Barrel March. 
merriment, to lessen the anxious thoughts summoned from the heart's 
recesses by the dogs of war. One picture I especially remember, 
which, for the ridiculous, could hardly be surpassed. About two hun- 
dred deserters had been dressed in barrels and kegs of all kinds and 
sizes, their heads had been closely shaven, and they were made to 
march through the streets of Dalton, Ga., to the music of a band, as 
a mark of disgrace for the abandonment of the cause of their choice 
and their lack of courage in a time that tried men's souls. The differ- 
ent sizes of these fellows, the equally different sizes of the barrels and 
kegs, the variety of countenances, the contour of heads peering above 
them, would rival the novelty of expression in the noses of a company 
of Baltimore Plug Uglies, and the equal novelty of coloring in a 
patch of hollyhocks growing in a poor man's garden. Colonel Cofer, 
of the "Orphan's Brigade," was Post Commandant of Dalton at the 
time. He was afterward Chief-Justice of Kentucky. A more ludi- 
crous picture yet was that of the Confederate Cavalry crossing the 



194 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

Tennessee at Cottonport, and confronted by Generals Minter's and 
Wilder's Federal Cavalry. Some of the Confederates were riding lit- 
tle mules that must have been first cousins to those whose histories 
Mark Twain recorded in the pages of "Innocents Abroad." Their 
little eyes looked so tired, their little legs seemed to tremble with weari- 
ness at so long bearing upon their sturdy little backs such burthens of 
valor. They wore upon their heads every conceivable shape of hat, 
the variety of which none but an old rebel could comprehend. Their 
garments were as varied and faded, worn and torn, as was their head- 
gear. Their feet were about as well covered — sometimes, indeed, not 
covered at all — and sticking out from the sides of their mounts, in 
many instances, as if with the intent of establishing a sort of natural 
abattis to the approach of the enemy, ^hus accoutered and attired, 
they passed along, making the woods and hills re-echo their song : 

" We are the honest yeomanry 
From old Kentucky's soil, 
A fighting for our property 
We gained by honest toil." 

The cavalry, after leaving Courtland, moved to North Alabama 
with the intention of going into winter quarters, but the movements of 
the enemy in South-western Virginia were of such a character that they 
occasioned our being ordered to Virginia, marching via Atlanta, Ga. , 
to Greenville, S. C, via Morgantown, N. C, to the Yadkin Valley, 
where we encamped on the farm of the Siamese Twins, who treated 
us with marked consideration. 

Referring above to the honest yeomanry fighting for {property 
reminds me of a fist fight I witnessed near Atlanta between two sol- 
diers. One was a Texan ; the other a Kentuckian. The former had 
given mortal offense to the latter by saying, " I was out here fighting 
for your property while you were in Kentucky sleeping on goose hair! " 
(another name for feather). 

The application of certain opprobrious epithets followed, and, as a 
consequence, a hand-to-hand struggle ensued, in which the Kentuck- 
ian brought "the first blood," boasting that no man should or could 
"throw into his teeth" that he was fighting for his property while he 
was at home sleeping on goose hair. The suggestion of a su])ine posi- 
tion and the languid ease of a feather bed seemed to especially incense 
him. I became interested in the developments of the case and "made 
free" enough to inquire what property he possessed when he left 
" God's country ? " 

He promi)tly replied, "None; I possessed none; but that fellow 
shall never be the wiser." 



A LONG TIME IN SADDLE. 195 

This was eminently characteristic of a soldier. I have frequently 
heard them, when sitting around the camp-fires, boast of their wealth 
and the comforts whose enjoyment they were denied because of their 
pursuit — as they thought — of their "rights." Indeed, the average Ken- 
tuckian is rather "frisky," to confess the truth, when it comes to reach- 
ing out for office, bragging upon his individual merit or asserting his 
entire independence of time, place, and circumstance. I think Ken- 
tucky can "bear the palm," even from Mississippi, as the home of 
"born heroes." At least, any man might thus argue who had shared 
their privations in camp, as I have done, and who twenty years after 
has the privilege (!) of sitting under the sound of their voices and listen- 
ing to their tales of valiant heroism — with a few mental reservations — 
there stands no immediate need of flaunting in the face of an attentive 
and "intelligent audience." Nor is the average Kentuckian inclined 
to modesty wherein the subject of "self" is involved. He grows 
brighter with adversity, even as "fox-fire" shines best in the darkest 
places. 

Kentucky, in the days of "langsyne," certainly had some adroit 
fellows in our command. They were noted, equally, for their horse- 
manship and courteous address. They exhibited an aptitude for ac- 
commodating themselves to almost any emergency. When the famine 
drove Abraham from the land of Canaan into Egypt, if he had had 
even one of those cavaliers as an avant courier, he would never have 
been driven to the necessity of claiming a fraternal interest in Sara, in 
order to get something to eat ; for that advance guard could have won 
his way, and found the place of secret stores without any difficulty. 
To watch their insouciant grace on all occasions was, in itself, as good 
as a play. To win the Pass of Thermopyliie to their Spartan courage 
seemed mere child's play, and they could as readily have conquered 
three hundred Xerxes and their armies, to hear them tell it, as have 
died in the Pass with Leonidas and his followers. 

It is pleasant to recall the amusing incidents of the war; the 
memory of them is like gathering roses from waste places, or hearing 
the song of birds amid the dust and roar of booming cannon and 
clashing arms. 

One other reminiscence and I shall have done. 

There was on a certain occasion the trial of a private soldier in the 
Confederate cavalry, in which the poor fellow was charged with four 
distinct offenses. First : That he had never brought a canteen of water 
to his mess since he had been in the army. Second : He had never 
had a blanket of his own to sleep on, winter or summer. Third: That 
he depended on his mess for both his smoking and chewing tobacco. 



196 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

Fourth: That whenever he was placed on vidette duty he was certain 
to invite an attack from the enemy. A judge was selected and a jury 
was impaneled on a log, and two lawyers were appointed to prosecute 
and defend. After the examination of half the company and the 
conclusion^ of the arguments, the jury took the case and acquitted 
him on the ground that, while probably all the charges were true, no 
comrade had ever heard him utter a syllable of complaint when detailed 
by a sergeant for any purpose whatever, whether to go upon what was 
called a hazardous expedition, or to do fatigue service. There are 
many soldiers living in this city who remember the trial and the flaming 
speeches that were made on that memorable night. And comical to 
relate, immediately upon the return of the jury with the announce- 
ment of acquittal, the accused asked a friend for a chew of tobacco, 
which very nearly caused his rearrest. 

' ' Gander-jjullings" were occasions of state with the cavalry soldiers, 
and "shin-digs," as they were termed by us, that were given by the 
girls in the neighborhood of the camp, left indelible impressions on the 
minds and hearts of those who were participants in their enjoyment, 
and in some instances resulted in marriage. To-day, where families 
have been established, there exists co-extensive diversities in fortune 
and affection ; but where the ghosts of memory alone people the halls 
of the past, and their immaterial faces bloom like the phantom flowers 
in the deserted hearts of the old soldiers, it can but be a source of 
pleasure to grow young again in the recalling of other times and other 
scenes amid the rush and whirl of the busy life of to-day. 





Old Providence Church, and the Tomb of General Robert B. McAfee, near 
McAfee's Station, Mercer County, Ky. 



CHRISTMAS TIMES OF LONG AGO. 



And How the Country Boy Celebrated Them. 

The advent of Yule-tide throughout the Christian world is usually 
anticipated as the most prominent event of every year. It is such a 
holy and beautiful time — a time for wiping out old scores and begin- 
ning again — a time for little acts of kindness, of generosity, of self- 
sacrifice whose magnitude is recognized only in heaven. Millions of 
dollars are annually expended in commemoration of the birth of 
Christ, the Saviour of mankind, who gave His life to expiate sin and 
save sinners. His holy example to the children of earth was so full of 
loveliness, so replete with beatific gentleness and forbearance that, to 
the contemplative soul, the expenditure of all the world's hoarded 
wealth in celebration of even one anniversary would be but a meager 
offering to His divine memory. Only too often the sacred time is 
given over to feasting and merry-making, without a thought of the 
beloved Master or the pangs He endured, for sake of even the lowliest 
and least among us. For myself, I love everything that is sacred, or 
that has for its object refinement of the senses and elevation of the 
soul. The word Christ embodies the Church and its divine teaching, 
and haloes the heart with the rainbow of hope in eternal life. Seeing 
the preparations for the happy time going on in the busy world about 
me ; watching the eager delight with which matrons and maidens and 
light-hearted children anticipate the day, and the zest with which men, 
with the burdens of business cares heaped upon their shoulders, turn 
aside from the thronged marts of trade, and the rush and drive at the 
Bourse, to form or renew their acquaintance with Santa Claus, for the 

(197) 



IQo MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES, 

sake of the dear ones at home, revives in my heart the memories of 
lang syne over which, waking or sleeping, shines the golden light of 
love, like the glow of a sun that never sets at all. 

It is many and many a change that time effects on all of us ; not 
only in a physical sense, and in point of sentiment and feeling, but in 
habit and in custom. The enthusiastic " craze" — for it can be called 
little else — for expensive automatic toys, and the thousand and one 
varieties of articles suitable for Christmas presents, and as mementos 
of the day that will outlive the transient pleasures of its celebration, 
recalls to my mind the primitive delights of other days when the insid- 
ious charms of bric-a-brac shops and toy stores (where Santa Claus 
makes his deposits of curiosities fresh from Wonderland every year, 
just before the advent of Yule-tide) were less prevalent than they are 
to-day — and I take pleasure in contrasting the past with the present, 
with the gentle hope blooming like a rose in my heart, that the remi- 
niscences of my own boyhood may recall that lost, delicious time to the 
minds of other men whose enjoyments were perhaps as innocent and 
pure as my own, and the memory of which, also like my own, may be 
imperishable. 

I was reared in the country. My father was a descendant from 
one of the Scotch-Irish ancestry, and attended the Presbyterian Church 
for "refreshment" in the days of Rev. Thomas Clelland, who began 
his sermons at half past nine o'clock in the morning, and concluded 
them only in time for the " flock " to get home by the going down of 
the sun. In those good old days the female members of the congre- 
gation almost invariably carried with them to church old-fashioned 
reticules filled with " rations" for tlie children of the flock, and there 
being usually a sort of recess between morning and evening service, 
it was the " accepted time" for refreshing the " inner man," while the 
religious contemplation of the soul upon supernal subjects was for the 
time being abstained from, only to be resumed with renewed vigor at 
the reopening of afternoon service. About a half mile distant from 
the church was a well, with an old oaken bucket, much resembling the 
moss-covered pail of which Wordsworth sings in immortal strains. It 
was worked by a pole over a post, in which a groove had been cut and 
a wooden pin thrust through two auger holes bored at opposite sides, 
allowing space for the movements of the pole. The bucket wfis sus- 
pended from one end of it, and a large rock fastened to the other end. 
A primitive and crude way of drawing water from a well, but as I 
remember the taste of the cool, crystal-clear liquid to-day, there was 
never a diviner draught quaffed by human lips. It was to this well 
that we sojourned to partake of refreshments for the body, and, to my 



CHRISTMAS TIMES OF LONG AGO. 1 99 

mind, seen by the light of to-day, those variegated reticules were the 
most mysterious receptacles for the good things of earth ever invented. 
Surely such round, red-cheeked apples, and rich brown gingerbread, 
spiced to a queen's taste ; such flaky biscuit and rosy ham, were never 
found elsewhere than in the queer, quaint reticules, with the draw- 
strings at the toj), our mothers used to take to old Providence Church, 
in Mercer county, for our special delectation ! What did it matter to 
us that the sermons had their fifteenth and sixteenth parts? We were 
satisfied and happy, and when we were tired we young members of the 
congregation went to sleep. There was no desire for slumber upon 
the parts of the elder listeners. The Rev. Thomas Clelland was a 
very popular minister. He was among the first of Kentucky's promi- 
nent clergymen, and his impassioned appeals to the hardy pioneers to 
look beyond the present and fear the wrath to come often brought 
tears to the bronzed cheeks of those who had endured the hardships 
of pioneer life without murmur or flinching. The evils to which the 
flesh was heir amounted to nothing with them, in comparison with the 
temptations to the soul. Temptations ! In those days, it seems to me 
now, there were no temptations, except for little boys, in the way of 
playing marbles, and hookey, and stealing apples that always looked 
so tempting and were so sour ! The difference between youth and 
maturity is so vast and unfathomable. It may never be bridged or 
crossed. Until I was fourteen years old I had never seen a Christmas 
toy — -had never read a fairy tale. The wonderful tale of Cinderella 
and her glass slipper, the harrowing experience of Red Riding Hood 
and the wolf, and the marvelous maneuvering of Prince Fortunatus 
with his queer little red cap, were sealed treasures from me, nor did I 
ever find the door at which I could cry "Open, sesame!" until the 
desire to solve the mysteries beyond it had passed away. 

My father's family, white and colored, numbered about twenty-two 
folk, and my recollection, now, is that we were all light-hearted and 
happy. In the month of November, every year, there is a special sea- 
son recognized among the yeomanry as " hog-killing time." When it 
rolled around, the struggle among the boys to obtain the "bladders" 
was sharp and decisive enough to have delighted an Alexander or 
Napoleon. Never in all the year was such industry shown or such 
obliging dispositions displayed. Their blandest smiles and most 
unique compliments were gracefully bestowed upon their butcher 
without stint or measure. The bestowal of a " bladder " was consid- 
ered by the country boy as a mark of great appreciation of his good 
qualities, and always exhibited by him with an air of triumph that 
would make the fortune of any mimic conqueror on the stage, could 



200 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

he at will assume it. Certain am I that the most charming toy of 
modern invention was never received hy a town boy with one-half the 
zest displayed by his rustic cousin. The " bladder " was always duly 
"blown up" and suspended from the garret rafters to await the com- 
ing of Christmas. It was never forgotten or ignored. On the morn- 
ing of the twenty-fifth of December, the sluggish and uncomely youth 
of the country would rise at four o'clock and climb to the loft after 
his signal guns, with which to offer his crude salute to the coming of 
the blessed day. After the quaint supply of their gaseous ammunition 
was exhausted, there always remained to them a still cruder way of 
making a noise, which was to hew a smooth place upon a log, and, 
spitting upon it, to place thereon a live fire coal, and then to strike 
the coal quickly with the bole of the ax, thereby creating a fearful 
blast. This sport was indulged in until the announcement that the 
egg-nog was ready for drinking. Talk of your French liqueurs, you 
who will, and of your Green Seal, and Ives' Seedling, and all that sort 
of thing, but the egg-nog bur mothers made out of cream and eggs, 
sugar and good whisky, was a drink fit' for the gods, whether you spelled 
it with a big or little " G." After the "nog " was enjoyed, came break- 
fast. This consumed, the dogs were called, and all hands, barring the 
" women folk," started for the woods and through the fields for a Christ- 
mas rabbit hunt. At night various entertainments were sought in the 
neighborhood, and merry-making continued throughout the week. But 
no fire-crackers, and no fretful and furious toy pistol played parts in 
those days! And when the new year dawned there were no records 
of accidents and deaths from the use of "bladders" and fire coaLs. 
Christmas day and the week ensuing was only a delightful dream, in 
which snow-clad fields and leafless forests and skittish rabbits, howl- 
ing and yelping dogs, and hooting voices of care-free boys, were oddly 
and incongruously mixed up with roasted turkey and pumpkin pies, 
.sweet cream and "cow butter,' with a whipped syllabub of eggs and 
whisky. Alas! those golden days are indeed relics of a dead-and- 
gone-forever past that take no part in tlie life of to-day, but are some- 
how sacred and set apart like the graves of the loved and lost. I take 
pride in the progressive features of the age, but because our nights are 
illuminated by electricity, and we seem to have no need for moon and 
stars, I love not less to recall the times when men loved to look up to 
them with awe and wonder as to unapproachable worlds on worlds, 
without knowing anything about the use of telescopes or taking a 
scientific view of their spheres and orbits, and all that. And although 
I look on and admire the brilliant exhibit of fireworks, even as does 
the sweet-scented dude who smokes his sugared cigarette, I sigh to 



CHRISTMAS TIMES OF LONG AGO. 20I 

recall the dear old days, now dead forever more. Even the old-time 
darky exists no longer. Now he is a "gem'man ob color," who car- 
ries his revolver and his razor as an evidence of his freedom. His 
song is no more heard at the corn huskings as of yore. His melliflu- 
ous notes that once filled the air with melody are now like the strings 
on Tara's harp, from which the soul of music has fled, and which now 
hanss mute on Tara's walls, as if that soul were dead — or something 
to that effect, according to the Prince of Melody, only that Tara's harp 
lost its harmony when Freedom died, and the darky lost his voice 
because Freedom was born again. However, I offer the quotation 
because, as "Mary Jane" would say, it chimed in as if it was the 
right thing in the right place. 

The old-time customs, with the living of to-day, are like national 

cemeteries— they l)ear the inscription, '' In Memory of ," all 

over them. The time has also passed for the liorny-handed yeomanry 
to drink " Home-made Bitters," which was composed of pure whisky 
and yellow poplar and dogwood barks. In lieu thereof, they have 
learned the names of all the fascinating modern beverages — which, by 
the way, are not as " safe " for a constancy as the old time " dram." 
Funny, is it? but nevertheless a fact, that when the wife of one of the 
old time yeomen rebelled against the use of the '' Bitters " aforesaid, 
he sought his physician, stated his dilemma, and obtained from him a 
recipe, which was invariably '"a quart," with two dry reeds stuck 
down in it to induce the unsuspecting wife to have faith in its medici- 
nal properties. 

Ah, well! These were simply little frauds, indulged in for the 
stomach's sake, in the primitive days of the country, before the art oi 
lying had become epidemic, and the spirit of trutli was lost in the 
chaos of total depravity. Such stories do to laugh over. They 
amount to nothing. 

For my part, at the inception of Christmas cheer, I would add a 
word of encouragement for Steve Holcombe and his good work, and 
would say further that I personally have no objection to the installation 
of Moody, Sam Jones, and "all of 'em," in our midst, unless it be 
Bob Ingersoll, who, fascinating as he may be in advancing his indi- 
vidual ideas, can never induce me to repose faith in his patent bridge 
as a safe pass over the river to the eternal camping-ground on the 
other shore. I love to believe that Christ was born to save sinners, 
and that He died to redeem a benisfhted world. 




"FEBRUARY 22d." 



A Speech, Commemorating this Sacred Day, Delivered in 
the House of Representatives, February 21,1 873. 

Mr. Speaker : When the gentleman from Campbell moved to ad- 
journ in honor of George Washington's birthday, I had no doubt in 
my own mind but that the motion would carry without a dissenting 
voice, especially after the concurrence of the House in the Senate res- 
olution providing for the firing of a national salute at midday. Had 
I entertained such a doubt, I should have been tempted to ask the in- 
dulgence of this honorable body even earlier than I now do, that I 
might have appealed to their pride as Americans — as Kcntuckians — to 
defend their institutions as they do their honor, and, surely, the com-" 
memoration of George Washington's birthday is an institution which 
should ever be called to remembrance, and celebrated with honor and 
solemnity by every man whose soul is not so dead as 

" Never to himself liath said : 
'This is my own, my native land.' " 

To morrow is the 2 2d of February ! 

From my earliest boyhood, I was tauglit to revere and keep holy, 
first, the Sabbath day, and, next to it, the 2 2d of February, George 
Washington's birthday ! How the simple words carry the mind away 
back "down the corridors of time!" How we recall the stories of 
his innocent boyhood, his youth, replete with honor, courage, and in- 
telligence, his manhood, through which he stood "first in war, first in 
peace, and first in ilic liearts of his countrymen." 

The storm of the Revolution surged over us, and passed, and we 
are a free people, but he who was the morning star of liberty is no 
longer cherished in the liearts of this generation, although the natioa 
has not completed a century of existence. 

(202) 



" FEBRUARY 22D." ' 203 

It does occur to me that we are rapidly forgetting or ignoring 
those time-honored customs whose observance once characterized 
Americans, and, most especially, Kentiickiaiis. I regret, exceedingly, 
that any member upon this floor has put himself to record against the 
motion made by the honorable member from the county of Campbell, 
for record lives, while oral expressions die away upon the air like 
sounds from a well-strung lute. 

We owe the commemoration of this day to the blood that was shed 
at Bunker Hill, to the first battle that was fought in defense of Amer- 
ican liberty. And we owe it to Kentucky's illustrious dead who fell 
at Buena Vista, and nearly all of whom lie in your State cemetery. 
If it were in my power, I would bring back Theodore O'Hara, Tom 
Monroe, and all of Kentucky's gifted sons who proved themselves 
worthy of their nativity. 

Theodore O'Hara sleeps to-day in the valley of the Father of 
Waters, restfully, as becomes so great a soul, so gallant a spirit ; but 
Kentuckians are unjust to themselves when they leave their distin- 
guished dead to repose forever in another State. The green graves of 
his countrymen who sleep " On Fame's eternal camping-ground" call 
for honor to him to whom honor is due. Those were the men who re- 
flected glory upon Kentucky, who made her fame for prowess on the 
tented field and inspiring eloquence on the rostrum as wide as the 
roll of the seas. 

The name of Kentucky is known everywhere. Henry Clay and 
his compatriots accomplished this much for her. Such spirits as she 
had embodied in her brave and gifted sons inspire song and poesy 
and chivalry in the hearts of the "loving and the daring," wherever 
the light of civilization shines. 

Two of the heroes of Buena Vista — the honorable gentlemen from 
Anderson and Taylor— are on the floor to-day. No longer needed in 
the "rank and file" of the army of the republic, they are to be seen 
in the solemn council of the State. I would be willing to adjourn in 
their honor, for surely they will hold to-morrow sacred in their mem- 
ories. The Senate has adjourned over. 

This precedent has long existed, and it should never be ignored 
while reason holds her throne or memory lasts. It is a time-honored 
custom. It should be perpetuated through 

" Cycles oY ages yet unborn.'' 

And I ask again earnestly, appealingly, is it possible that a Ken- 
tucky Legislature is the first to make the breach rather than the 
observance? Is it possible that a Kentucky Legislature refuses to 



^°4 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

resi)ect not only the birthday of George Washington, but also th< 
blessed memory of those whose genius and greatness, whose gallan.r^ 
and goodness have made us so proud of the "Dark and Bloo.i; 

?uT^ . '" '" ''""'■ '"^ ""''' ^''^'''' ^° ^^^^^d to our honor n^ 

the dead past" our illustrious predecessors have bequeathed to n. r 
Let us not then shame ,t by ignoring a custom that was dear to tluMn 
and should be dear to us. 

Now I am the descendant of a race of people who were the com- 
peers of Boone. They came through Lavisa Fork nearly one hun- 
dred years ago, when this country was lonesome through the last 
degree of dread, and when the forests seemed too dark for a rav of 
sunshine to penetrate the dense, umbrageous boughs to cast its bright- 
ness even on "a sere and yellow leaf." The red man and the wild 
beasts of the wilderness possessed the country. They had naught to 
guide them on their journey but their manly courage, their strong 
right arms, and their trust in God. Yet, I dare say, they held sacred 
the anniversary of the birth of the great chieftain of the republic and 
I want to follow in the wake of their fealty to liberty. I want this 
Legislature to remember the fame of Kentucky, and not recede from 
the position of honor and trust which she ascribes to everv one 
present. 

Kentucky was the first State admitted into the Union after the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution-the inscription upon the marble 
block she furnished to the construction of Washington's monument 
tells this much-and the motto was suggested, we believe, by the 
Illustrious John J. Crittenden: "Kentucky, the first State admitted 
into the Union under the Federal Constitution, and will be the last to 
go out of it." 

And ah ! through blood and tears d/d s/ir not keep her faith ? 

She has no glory that is not ours. 

As a young Kentuckian, I am justly proud of all her history She 
has not a landmark that is not as dear to me as the ruddy drops were 
that visited Brutus' sad heart. Aye, I love her as England was beloved 
by I .tt or as an Athenian loved the City of the Violet Croun; and I 
would not destroy a memory or desecrate a custom of her people any 
more than I, with ribald jest, would dare invade the solemn sanctity 
of a holy temple of the Lord. 

Custom is the Al Sirat between the past and present, and the sin of 
forgetting an honor due to the dead, who gave us country and State 
because he is dead shall never weigh upon me as a d..d that would 
have been more honored in the observance than tiie breach Let the 
man present, who can, look upon the portrait of George Washington 



" FEBRUARY 22D." 



205 



'*' God-like, erect, with native honor chid," and vote against the reso- 
lution to adjourn in honor to his ilhistrious and glorious memory. / 
can not. 

George Washington was a man who was em.inent because he stood 
high compared with all around him ; conspicuous, because he was so 
elevated as to be seen and observed; distinguished, for he had that 
labout him that made him stand apart from all others in tlie public 
[view ; celebrated, for he was widely and universally spoken of with 
[honor and respect; illustrious, because a splendor was, and is, thrown 
laround him, and the memory of him which confers the highest dignity. 
;;To commemorate his birthday will be a token of esteem paid to worth; 
a mark of respect; a sign of consideration; a reverence; a veneration, 
and 1. for one, as an American, as a Kentuckian, as a man, shall cele- 
brate it. 

Bishop Taylor once said: "Sermons are not like curious inquiries 
after new nothings, but pursuances of old truths," which I quote for the 
reason that it applies to my remarks. I have ventured nothing new, 
but I have told "old truths," and I trust this honorable body will accept 
them at their worth, as the solemn conviction of a man who knows, 
and "knowing, dares maintain," all the rites due to the memory of a 
knightly and chivalrous soldier, a patriot, and a gentleman. 




^^^^47 







Birthplace of General Grant. 



GENERAL U. S. GRANT. 



How sudden are the blows of fate ! What change, what revokition 
in the state of glory ! To-day we walk with head erect, level-fronting 
eyes, and haughty mien ; to-morrow, by some untoward chance stripped 
of our panoplied pride, we find there are none so poor as to do us rev- 
erence. The poet of poets has written eloquently of adversity, claim- 
ing that its usages were " sweet," and that like the ugly and venomous 
toad, which wears a jewel on its head, out of its multiplicity of evils 
and ugliness it teaches us to find good in everything. For my own 
part I am ready to aver that although " to paint the lily and gild refined 
golS" may be a figure of speech which it is the province of a poet to 
utter in this eminently prosaic age, it is scarcely calculated to make the 
hungry hunger less, or those who are cold to cease repining and shiv- 
ering together. 

A great many of the strange stories and superstitions extant centur- 
ies ago have long since been rifled of their power to command cre- 
dence, even from the credulous; and of all of them not one has been 
proved to be more utterly unfounded and fallacious than this one about 
the richly-endowed cranium of the genus Bufo. Never yet has a 
jewel been discovered, although the number of toads immolated upon 
the altar of investigation by the inevitable small boy, and the no less 
inevitable seeker after knowledge, would, if collected together, pack 
the basin of Lake Michigan as compactly as sardines fill a box. And 
no more are there " sweets " to adversity than there are jewels in toad- 

(206) 



GENERAL U. S. GRANT. 207 

heads, unless, indeed, it be accounted '' sweet " to discover tlie falsity of 
those who, professing friendship in sunny hours, help us to enjoy life, 
but who in dark ones forget and desert us. 

History affords us many citations of the rise and fall of empires, 
dynasties, and States. Crowned heads have been brought low — the 
high and the mighty being but as dust beneath the feet of the "com- 
mon herd." A prince of the blood has been a kitchen scullion, and 
the loveliest queen who ever wore a diadem darned and patched her 
threadbare linen, and had to beg for the materials with which to do 
that. Men, in America especially, have been millionaires one day and 
beggars the next. But never in the annals of any country has the 
fluctuation of fortune, the folly of ambition, and the fallacy of faith in 
human fidelity been so thoroughly exemplified as in the case of Gen- 
eral Grant, whose misplaced confidence with its unfortunate results 
ought to make him an object of sympathy, as he must always be of 
respect and admiration, with every well-meaning, right-thinking Amer- 
ican citizen. His misfortunes in no wise detract from his greatness as 
a general, his power as a political leader, or his cleverness and sincer- 
ity as a gentleman and a friend. I am very certain that in this asser- 
tion the opinions of other Confederate soldiers will bear me out. They 
are so wedded to the principles of chivalry by tradition, heritage, and 
in point of fact, that they are never slow to recognize the fine traits of 
true manhood, no matter where they may be seen, or by whom they 
may be exhibited. And because of this, it is not strange that General 
Grant's conduct at the close of the civil war should be kept in grateful 
and kindly remembrance even to this late day. 

On the 9th of April, 1865, I was with the Kentucky brigade in Vir- 
ginia when it was surrendered on the same terms agreed upon between 
General Grant and General Lee, at Appomattox : The soldiers, all com- 
missioned officers rather, were allowed to retain their side-arms and 
horses. On the same day as that of the surrender we turned our faces 
toward Kentucky, crossing New river above Dublin (in fact, swimming 
it, as the Federals had burned the bridge at that point), and marching 
to Newburn ; from thence entered Kentucky through Pound Gap, con- 
tinuing our route down Robertson creek to Beaver, crossing the coun- 
try via Salyersville to Mount Sterling, where we were met by General 
Hobson, who granted the Kentucky brigade of cavalry (which, in the 
beginning of the war, was organized by the lamented General Hum- 
phrey Marshall) the same terms conceded at Appomattox. 

For General Grant's nobility and kindness on that occasion the 
memory of all Confederate soldiers must ever gratefully revert to him. 
Many of them were ready at the time — wearied and worn with the long 



208 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

and heart-rending struggle— in their joy at reaching " God's country" 
safe and sound of limb, with a horse "and a pistol by his side," to 
regard him as not only "the greatest living American, but a soldier 
whose intrepidity and valor should win for him the highest rank in the 
hearts of the people in times of peace," an admission which was made, 
indeed, and which was borne out by subsequent facts. Plaudits 
sounded. 

From the mountain down to the shore, 

And fifteen thousand cities and hamlets blazed with illuminations in 
honor of his "glorious victory" at Appomattox. But the "still, 
small voice" of his noble and true heart, and the memory of the look 
in Robert E. Lee's eyes, when he refused to see the reversed sword- 
handle tendered him, as was the bounden duty of the vanquished 
toward the victor, must have sounded sweeter notes of praise than the 
acclaim of multitudes. Who, but the bravest and most magnanimous 
of soldiers and gentlemen could be capable of such an act ? One man 
in a million could do it. Greater than he who conquers cities is he 
who conquers himself, and Confederate soldiers must forever revere 
Grant for the nobility of that one deed, if for none other. 

When the war closed, if General Grant would have accepted it, 
it was in the hearts of the people of the United States to present 
him with any one of the Western Territories, furnishing him with a 
clean tide to the same. But now that age and misplaced confidence 
have deprived him of what little he had saved from his long and ar 
duous public services, where are the clans that leaped around him at a 
motion of his hand, as in other days the clans of " Bonny Scotland" 
at the sweeping of the wind started up from the purple plumes of 
heather ? Gone — all gone ! — and now ? 

An old man, broken with the storms of fate, 
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye ; 
Give him a little earth for charity. 

Is what his present and his future mean in comparison with the resplen- 
dent glory of his past ! In other days when he filled the highest office 
in the gift of the American people, he moved panoplied in homage 
like the royalty of the Old World. Nay, his sway over the hearts of 
the people was founded on gratitude and esteem, but where are those 
myriad friends to-day? His fidelity to his friends was the marvel of 
the world! How do they serve him now, when adversity has fallen on 
him like a blight ? 

I. for one, appreciate what he did for me in 1865. ^^''""en by the terms 
of the surrender I was allowed to retain " Roderick Dhu " and my old 



GENERAL U. S. GRANT. 209 

"navy" pistol (huge enough to make four " bull-dogs ") as a heritage, 
with [jermission to depart from Virginia, after nearly four years' service 
in the Confederate army. 

Now, that nearly twenty years have been numbered Avith the " eter- 
nal past," and the country has been restored to peace and prosperity — 
with an incoming Democratic administration — without a vestige of 
rancor in my heart, I feel proud — as an American citizen I feel justly 
proud of General Grant, and had I followed his "star," I could not 
claim for him or extend to him more respect than I do to-day for his 
long and distinguished services and merit as a leader of the American 
people. To retire him upon the pay of an army officer at $17,500 a 
year would be but paltry recompense to him who touched the pinnacle 
of greatness, and whose glory compassed its full meridian. 

I fervently believe that the Confederate soldiers — who remember 
and still appreciate the value of his influence in their behalf just after 
the war, as poor and fragile as many of them are — would cheerfully 
contribute toward his comfort were any feasible plan indicated that 
would be satisfactory to him — even though it should be the purchase 
of a bluegrass farm in Kentucky, where he could pass the remainder 
of his days in peace and quiet, among those who fully appreciate valor 
and nobility of character in an American citizen, it matters not under 
what flag he fought, or what army he led to victory. 




14 




GENERAL JOHN H. MORGAN. 



How the Great Confederate Cavalryman Met His Fate. 



After long years, to recall memories of incidents involved in the 
subject defined by the above caption affords the writer a melancholy 
satisfaction, since it may revive in faithful and chivalric hearts an 
interest in that hero who, living, stood among his compatriots without a 
peer as the model cavalier, the ideal soldier; and who now, being dead, 
a mere "handful of dry, white dust, heaped over with a mound of 
grass," may, perchance, be lost sight of in the riotous rush of a noisy 
world. If the reminiscence accomj)lishes this much the writer will 
feel amply repaid for his wanderings among the graves and tombstones 
of the past, where the sunshine of a busy and prosperous present has 
stolen in and woven a golden fret-work over the cold and silent i)laces 
where sleep the heroes of the Lost Cause. 

No lovelier breadth of country on the globe can be found than 
thai which lies along the route from Abingdon, Va., via Bristol and 
Jonesboro, to Greenville, Tenn., and the varied panorama once stretch- 

(210) 



GENERAL JOHN H. MORGAN. 211 

ing out before the admiring eye hangs forever afterward in memory's 
storied hall like a rich and gorgeous picture over which long years 
have flung their mellowing tints. 

The hills, the meadows, the dusky screen of woods, the gray 
rocks, the ripple and rush of waters, the pine clad heights, the cedar 
valleys through which the rivers run, the purple lights that lie in the 
distance, the whiteness of the near mists, all had put on their gala 
dress to welcome autumn as a royal guest, when General John H. 
Morgan issued orders on the 2d day of September, 1864, and ''took 
up the line of march" along the above-named route, arriving at 
Greenville, Tenn., on the evening of the 3d at the hour of sunset. 
Ah 1 how that scene returns to me! I sadly muse and vividly see, as 
of yore, the 

Warm lights on the sleepy uplands waning 
Beneath soft clouds along the horizon rolled, 

Till the slant sunbeams through their fringes raining 
Bathe all the hills in melancholy gold. 

Alas! it is a vision silent and swift to come and depart as some 
sweet, wandering thought, which gives eager eyes a glimpse of its 
bright wings, and, presto, vanishes! General Morgan's command con- 
sisted of the remnant of his old brigade, Giltner's brigade (com- 
manded by Colonel Henry Ciiltner), Vaughn's brigade (commanded 
by Colonel Bradford), and two companies from Cosby 's brigade (com- 
manded by Captain Peter Everett). Colonel D. Howard Smith, I 
think, commanded probably the general's old command (when on the 
march) and those men who were under Captain Everett, numbering 
in all about four hundred. General Morgan numbered, in his entire 
command, about fifteen hundred effective men. 

Arriving in Greenville, they were disposed of as follows: 
Bradford's command was ordered to Blue Spring, nine or ten 
miles beyond the town, in the direction of Bull's Gap, at which place 
General Gillam was encamped with a force numbering about three 
thousand men. Colonel Giltner was ordered into camp at the cross- 
ing of the Babb's Mill road, about five miles from town, in the direc- 
tion of Rogersville, Tenn. Colonel D. Howard Smith and Captain 
Everett, with a small force, were detailed to Arnold's place, west of 
the town about one mile, while the general's old command, com- 
manded by Captain Clark (in encampment), settled down like a swarm 
of bees on the college lawn, north-east of the town. This last-men- 
tioned place was not more than two hundred yards from the residence 
of Mrs. Williams, at whose hospitable house the general had estab- 
lished his headquarters for the night. 



212 MISCELLANEOUS SKKTCHF.S. 

The Williams mansion was one of the loveliest homes in Tennessee. 
Attractive in its outside appearance — being a large, double, two-story 
house, with verandas, and wide, deep windows and heavy portals and 
breezy halls, like all the best class of Southern houses — it was doubly 
so within, being furnished in elegant style, and, like a good ship 
manned with sailors, it was kept up in a grand way by a stately hostess 
and a well-trained retinue of competent servants — a household rarity at 
any time. 

The house was situated in the midst of a beautiful flower-garden, 
where summer had already begun to gather up her robes of glory, and, 
like a dream of beauty, to fade away. The Williams family was rich, 
even so rich as to have their own church and a regularly-engaged chap- 
lain to perform service in it. Their mode of life was not changed by 
the fact of war in the country or on the borders. The best the land 
afforded was theirs, and that, too, in no stinted measure ; and, doubt- 
less. General Morgan congratulated himself that he had found such a 
delightful and hospitable home, at which all the delicacies of the season 
were offered with lavish grace. Yet being there was the primitive cause 
of his unfortunate and unhallowed demise. 

Mrs. Williams' family proper consisted of herself and three sons — 
William, Joel (or Joe, as he was familiarly addressed by everybody), 
and Tom. The last mentioned of the sons lived in what is termed 
"the single state." Joe and William were both married. William's 
wife was a Miss Broils — ^an exceptionally lovely and gifted lady. Joe's 
wife was a very pretty young woman, whose maiden name was Rum- 
baugh. This lady was a staunch Union woman in her political pro- 
clivities, and that, too, when her spirited and handsome brother, 
Captain Thomas Rumbaugh, had a long time previously donned the 
gray uniform and made as gallant a soldier as ever marched to the 
sound of a drum and the ear-piercing music of the fife. 

Joel Williams lived in the country, but, as ill-luck would have it, 
his wife was in town on a visit at her mother-in-law's house, and she 
met General Morgan there when frowning Fate impelled him to make 
his heackpiarters at that special point. Naturally, she did not show any 
enthusiasm over the new arrivals in the household, and it was said 
afterward that she threatened to "give them trouble." Certain it is 
that subsequent events proved the truth of the rumor, although it never 
can be doubted that the cordiality was sincere and the hospitality gen- 
uine which the mistress of the mansion, upon her part, extended to the 
gallant Morgan, the prince of gentlemen, and, if treachery environed 
and overcame him in the splendor of his manly beauty, no stain lies on 
her escutcheon because of the ignoble deed ! 



GENERAL JOHN H. MORGAN. 213 

The hours flew on apace. There were festive sounds in the man- 
sion, for tlie stately dame presiding there was doing honor to a hero. 
Lights gleamed from windows and open doors, and now and then a 
golden ripple of laughter or the echoes of happy voices would float out 
on the breeze, winging its way through the airy halls with the sense of 
peaceful sweetness that the breath of blossoms brings when blown about 
by night winds in the new time of the year. 

Heaven's blue deepened; globules of heavy dew fell; the stars — 
night's flying hosts, in their noiseless, triumphal cars of gold — sped 
onward across the trackless firmament ; the flowers swung their rain- 
bow-tinted censers ; the rapt night received their fragrant souls into her 
embrace, and the sorrowing whippoorwill outsung the nightingale ! 
Never did the dark come down over a happier or more hopeful set of 
soldiers. The light-hearted fellows — first in a battle, first in a dance, 
as chance might decree — fully contemplated being over the Cumber- 
land mountains and fairly possessed of "God's country" — as they 
termed Kentucky — before the crimson and purple and gold of another 
sunset, 'broidered with marvelous fringe of glowing and harmonious 
•colors, the horizon's line, where broad-based earth in dun repose 
meets the open face of the deep-blue Infinite. They were especially 
happy because Morgan commanded them. The keenest sarcasms, 
the merriest jests, went around. Did not the march promise to every 
one, "according to his lights," the fulfillment of his most cherished 
hopes, his most ardent desires ? One goiin/n-t declared he went with 
the hope of getting "a square meal;" another wit proclaimed his 
intention of capturing "a blooded horse," whose pedigree on his 
return should read: "Out of Kentucky, by a rebel" Another 
would be pensive at the thought of returning to the old, familiar places 
and seeing the old, familiar faces. Here a cheek would glow in 
anticipation of laughing lips and brightest eyes, that would deepen in 
roseate color or intensify in brilliance when a certain somebody met 
them again ; then a dimness of vision or a sadness of expression 
would betray the earnest nature which, longing fervently to see the 
loved ones at home, lost not sight of the dangers of the expedition. 

Ah ! ah! "The Old Kentucky Home Far Away," to exiled hearts 
in those dead and gone days, had the beauty which Canaan wears to 
the Christian soul, and the glory which envelops ancient Greece to 
the meditative dreamer's pensive fancy. None but he who has been 
an exile can enter into ixipport with the ecstatic feelings of these light- 
hearted, gallant fellows of whom I write! Hope held out alluring 
rewards to the brave. .\las ! how often does God break to our faces 
the idols of our dreams ! 



214 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

The morning of the 4th of September, 1864, proved the fallacy of 
human desire, even as withered leaves speak to the contemplative 
heart of longings — idle longings, which many a time fill the chalice of 
departed hours. This is the way that, to those who rode with Mor- 
gan, disappointment and sorrow came to keep them compan}' in lieu 
of gayety and plenty. 

In the Williams mansion all became quiet. Greenville fell asleep. 
In the woods, the meadows, and the fallow fields Nature and her chil- 
dren kept watch together through the blessed hours of silence and 
repose. 

Gradually the sky, hitherto so serene, became overcast ; the autumn- 
bronzing winds began to blow ; the rustling leaves made weird music 
on the boughs; the birds nestled closer together; the slow, intense, 
drizzling rain began to fall ; darkness deepened and deepened. There 
were shadows stealing along through the gloom ; there was the dull 
thud, thud of a horse's hoofs breaking on the somber silence ; there 
was a swift, sinuous sound of a woman's moving draperies; then all 
was still. There was a soft rap at the door; there were broken sounds 
of whispering ; there was an abrupt command, rapid movements 
through the night, a tramping of manly feet, the hurried urging of a 
horse into a gallop, and then all was hurry and excitement ; not a sound, 
not a bustling excitement, but that still, sweeping, onward rush as of 
the warring elements that approach to do battle in a storm. 

And then, as the lightning gores the darkness with "a vivid, vin- 
dictive, and serpentine flash," it became known that Mrs. Joel Will- 
iams had escaped the house, eluded the guards, mounted the horse, 
and was away over the hills, bearing blight and death and disaster as 
she went through marshes, swamps, dismal fens, over stony peaks and 
bald summits, on, on, into the dark and the deepening darkness, 
through wild ravines and gorges, riding straight as an arrow sjjceds 
in its flight for the camp of Gillam to betray John Morgan ! And, 
like a sleuth hound sli])i)ed from his lashes, after her, after her, along 
the dangerous way, overhung by drear cliffs, drenched with the driv- 
ing rain, blinded by the darkness, with the pallor of anxiety on his 
cheek and the energy of despair in his heart, after her, after her, 
under towering peaks, past meadow lands, stretching away and away, 
knowing not the route, not dreading the danger, following blindly the 
clattering of horse's hoofs in advance of him, like shadow pursuing 
shadow in a dream, rode the gray-coated scout to overtake and capt- 
ure her. In vain ! in vain ! She eluded him! How well was proved 
when at five a. m. a scouting party from the Union camp, comprising 
about six hundred men, entered the little town of Greenville from the 



GENERAL JOHN H. MORGAN. 215 

Paint Gap road, which had been left uncovered by reason of Bradford 
not proceeding, as ordered, to Blue " Springs." Useless now all 
repinings, all reproaches — useless and vague as the echo of a heart's 
regrets ! They surrounded the general's headquarters, captured his 
staff, his couriers, and some stragglers who followed ever in the golden 
wake of his martial glory, as the mote dances in the sunbeam and 
shines with reflected splendor. The general himself succeeded in 
eluding them and escaped from the house. He was in his shirt sleeves, 
not having time even to don his uniform. Into the flower garden he 
went, where the darkness and the rain and the mist all combined to 
woo him into a place of security. The winds whispered, "Hide! 
hide!" The drenched roses — the sweet, rain-brushed roses — whis- 
pered, " Hide ! hide ! " Ah ! life was so precious to him ! 

The church before referred to was situated on the street ; it ran 
parallel with the flower garden on the north; under it ran a culvert 
which opened upon a meadow lot. Major Gassett, one of his officers 
who had succeeded in escaping with him — indeed, who had seen the 
nemy approaching and quickly as he might had given warning — 
went with him into this culvert. They passed through it to the north 
side of the street. The general, led on by the shadowy and mysteri- 
ous fate, whose guiding hand he had no power to avert, immediately 
returned, leaving Gassett, who afterward made his escape, and for a 
few moments he once more sought refuge beneath God's sanctuary, 
after which he hurriedly passed into the flower garden where his 
friends, the roses, hung their tear-besprent faces, and the mists were 
lifting themselves skyward, and crossing it, enterfed a vineyard, where 
the sun's golden fingers, touching the emerald globules of the luscious 
grapes, had turned them to blooming purple and pale amethyst. 

Alas ! alas i 

It was at this ]joint, and doubtless while awaiting the arrival of his 
troops, that he was discovered by the enemy, the direful, dreadful 
enemy, who thronged the street running from the town to the depot 
(the Williams house was in sight of the depot), and parallel with the 
yard upon the south. They fired on him. One shot took effect in 
the left side of his chest, felling him to the ground. Brute instinct 
overmatched reason and the cry of humanity. Those who had per- 
petrated the deed climbed the picket fence, and lifting him bodily, 
threw him over into the street ! Here he was lifted again, thrown 
across a horse in front of a fiendish soldier, whose name, were it 
known, ought to be handed down through cycles of ages yet unborn, 
in a cloud of infamy, like that of him who burned the temple of Ei)h- 
esus! Picture it, O lovers of justice and humanity! Picture it, O 



^^^ MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 



soldiers in either cause, and weep and blush for the shame and the 

horror oi it! Through the streets of Greenville rode the fiend whose 

form shamed his race! with a wounded and dying man swung across 

his saddle bow, cursing, reviling, muttering as he galloped hither and 

yon among masses of horror-stricken citizens gathered in the streets ' 

I saw one woman pale and tremble and shudder like a wind-shaken 

aspen as she recounted the scene, and related how she had seen the 

general (with his ashen-hued, death-stricken face turned to the light 

of the day and the gaze of the gaping crowds) running his fingers 

through his hair, with his eyes lifted to heaven. O, my God' The 

supreme agony of that moment. Do any of the horrors of the dark 

ages depicted on the historic scrolls transcend it for brutality ? How 

and when he gave up the ghost; how and when his spirit poised itself 

for flight, and thus eluded his ignoble tormentors, those who loved him 

will never, never know. 

He was thus borne about through the town, and thence some dis- 
tance beyond it, where the force of invaders with their royal trophy of 
war met General Gillam with his command, who, after a slight en-a-e- 
ment with Smith, entered the town, Smith falling back at his approach 
Why the general was not rescued by the command which was en- 
camped within a stone's throw of his headquarters upon the college 
lawn IS a question I can not answer. I was with Colonel D. Howard 
Smith and Captain Everett one mile west of the town on the Arnold 
farm. Upon hearing the firing in town the command was ordered to 
mount and to move to the hill west of the depot. 

The enemy had left town. The Confederates fell back in the direction 
of Jonesboro. At Leesburg Colonels Giltner and Bradford joined 
Smith. Giltner being senior officer here took command. 

I was ordered to take a small force, and proceeding to Greenville 
under flag of truce, to discover, if possible, what had become of Gen- 
eral Morgan, and to look after our dead and our wounded. At five 
o'clock p. M., September 4, 1864, we arrived and found General Mor- 
gan—dead I Ah ! death struck sharp on life makes awful lightning. 

_ He had been shot at daylight. Was it a wonder to us who loved 
him that the light was gone from the day; that the confiding roses were 
dead on their stems, and wore only crowns of rust in lieu of blushes > 
Was It a wonder to us that the rainbow-tints of autumn, sprinkling hill 
and dale like shattered gems, wore no beauty to our tear-dimmed eyes ? 
How was it ])roved to us that believing we marched in the path of 
glory, we found ourselves at the last wretched pall-bearers of our bright- 
est hopes, with sorrowful, lagging steps, tramping along the shadowed 
path of dreams? My heart sickens over the memory ! 



GENERAL JOHN H. MORGAN. 217 

Through the influence of some friends of mine I was permitted to 
take charge of that beloved body. A neat walnut coffin was furnished 
by sympathizing citizens, and at my own expense I hired a one- 
horse wagon (none other was obtainable!), into which the coffin was 
placed ; and thus, accompanied by a small escort, I proceeded with his 
remains to Jonesboro, Tenn. O glorified hearse ! O mourning reti- 
nue ! What a hero ! What obsequies! 

At Jonesboro I met General Basil W. Duke, Colonel Richard Mor- 
gan (brother of the general), and other field officers of his command, 
who but a short time previous had been " exchanged " at Charleston, 
S. C. O, such a home-coming to loving hearts ! 

In death, he seemed just to have fallen asleep ! The crucifixion 
agony had gone from his face, and the same gentle, kindly smile hov- 
ered over it we had seen so often there when the glow of health and 
magnificent manhood vivified his form and set the splendid seal of 
power upon his bold and knightly brow, gemmed with his matchless 
eyes! So he went. So we, who loved and admired him, mourn his 
loss. To this day we are haunted and hunted down with melancholy 
surmises and broodings over his chances, had such and such things 
happened. If he had been left when he was shot he might have 
recovered of his wounds, as many another man did in that region. Had 
he remained in the culvert or under the church with Major Gassett, he 
might have escaped, as Gassett did. 

And so we thread the weary sequences; but be all this as it may, 
thus ended the life of the boldest and most admired cavalry officer of 
the South ! His raids were always brilliant, dashing, conspicuous. 
His name was thundered far and wide across the country, and will 
never, never be forgotten ! He was a fine soldier, a splendid horse- 
man, a thorough gentleman. No Bayard of fame ever was a braver 
knight or a more gallant chevalier. Indeed, may it be said that his was 

One of the few immortal names 
Tliat were not born to die ! 

Singular to relate, as a closing memento, and not as a thread of the 
romancist woven into the warp and woof of facts, Mrs. Joel Williams' 
gallant brother, Thomas Rumbaugh, to whom she was intensely devoted, 
despite his rebellious spirit, was shot and killed during an encounter 
at Bull's Gap, scarcely three weeks later, almost on the identical spot 
where she met Gillam and betrayed to his untimely end the prince of 
cavaliers! Verily, verily. 

Every sin brings its own punishment 

That rings its changes on the counter of this world. 



HOW TO BETTER ONE'S SELF. 




Wu^h' 



The moral lever of Archi- 
medes was earnestness ; and 
to this day the authority of noble 
descent, the influence of wealth, 
the glory of genius can not be 
compared with it in power, 
' ^ neither separately nor aggre- 

gately. It is proven to be true 
everyday, and from time immemorial its demon- 
stration has remained unchanged that men of 
earnestness, rather than men of genius, have wrought the changes in 
the moral aspect of the world. We could make dozens of citations to 
prove the truth of our asseveration. Cromwell, Marlborough, Wash- 
ington — the one earnest in his ambition for power, the other greedy 
for glory and greedier for gold, and the last wearing his noble love 
of constitutional liberty as a monarch a crown — each and all were 
made powerful by their earnest resolve to succeed. 

The principle holds good to-day. What we do we should do with 
our hearts. Earnest resolution is the power that razes all obstacles ; it 
breaks down and crushes out all opposing forces. Devoid of this in- 
spiring principle — this necessary enthusiasm — it will forever be impos- 
sible to accomplish anything great. The man who has courage to 
face a difficulty, courage to do right no matter how tempting the wrong 
may be, courage to do right no matter if right doing requires a sacri- 
fice, is the man to succeed; he is the man with the earnestness of char- 
acter which success requires as an " open sesame" to its untold wealth 
and untold glories. There are many persons — and the fact is lament- 
able — who scorn to make an effort toward personal aggrandizement, 
who seem to think that their presence in the world is honor enough 
to the universe, and that nothing is required at their hands but exist- 
ence. They come under various heads, the most useless and worth- 
less among them all being the loafers. They maybe seen on the street 
corners, at all public ])laccs of amusement or resort, with the same 
languid, " laissez nous faire " expression of countenance and conduct. 
To such we would say that, unless they resolve to better themselves by 
fulfilling the urging of the i)oet to 

" Work for some good, he it ever so slowly ; 
Cherish some flower, lie it ever so lowly," 
(2l8) 



HOW TO BETTER ONES SELF. ZIQ 

They will surely find that Time's sand-dry streamlet flows not cease- 
lessly through its glassy straits ; for it ends where the eternal life begins, 
and too late, when summoned to answer to their records, they will see 
they have never called into exercise the strength of their manhood, 
but have lived as drones in a busy hive and ciied worthless and soon 
forgotten. The man who betters himself in this world is not the light- 
willed, half reluctant actor, but the man who, resolving to accomplish, 
accomplishes. He who stands undecided whether to go forward or 
backward — he who half enlists himself in a cause and expects to suc- 
ceed — is a loon. He can neither command nor deserve to attain suc- 
cess in any effort so assumed. What does it matter that a man is en- 
dowed with a rich intellect if iie never consecrates it to some noble 
aim, but takes it with him to the grave and hides it away in the dust, 
like his life — a miserable failure? How is the world bettered by his 
having lived at all, any more than the Laplander is blessed by the fact 
of fragrant flowers and luscious fruits springing almost spontaneously 
from the loamy soil of the sun-warmed tropics, while he trudges 
through a land of ice and snow ? 

Nothing can prove an insurmountable obstacle to the man w^ho 
knows how to be earnest and resolute. Poverty may be, and indeed 
is, always a real evil. It would be absurd to deny that fact and also the 
fact that it is the parent of many, indeed most, of the physical and moral 
evils under the sun. Experience teaches this to us, and we can not 
deny it, but the man with a will to succeed never remains a victim to 
poverty for long. The common comforts and necessities of life he 
soon gathers about him. No life can be pregnant with sorrow and sin 
that goes in the straight and narrow path that leads to the golden goal 
of success, and thenceforward consecrates the triumphant devotee to 
elegant enjoyment and ease and banishes forever from him petty cares 
and w^orldly anxieties, and leaves the time, the thought, the whole 
spirit, free to contemplate the attainments of energy. There must be 
many denials of body and soul — oftentimes disappointments — and 
blighted hopes of heart and brain and the bitter tears of fruitless re- 
pentance that come too late to redeem some hours that might have 
been happy. There may be — there will be — personal regrets for cer- 
tain circumstances ; there will be a lack of sympathy wath other strug. 
gles up the steps — a confidence of selfishness that often marks the on- 
ward progress of the successful man ; but after all, who shall say the 
cost is greater than the gain ? 

One of the great secrets of knowing how to better one s self is the 
strength and courage that are required to do without that which is not 
needed when the spirit of admiration, by a stress of will, is compelled 



22° MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

to submit to the spirit of self-abnegation. Another is the resolution 
to attend strictly to one's own business and to keep one's own opin- 
ions to one s self. The courage to speak when it is necessary, and to 
hold the tongue when it is equally necessary, is as rare as it is desira- 
ble. And he who follows out these rules for guidance, and allies with 
them unfailmg energy and unwavering resolution, will find there are 
few thmgs of this earth that are unattainable when effort for attainment 
is made through these legitimate means. 

But one thing should never be forgotten. And that is that 

" He most lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 

And, after all is said that can be said of false doctrines and true 
ones one malienable fact remains shining like a star on all the future 
and lighting all the past-the highest crown of excellence attainable in 
this world IS in being and in doing good. 

The sweetest lives are often the humblest and the happiest 

.1, ^'' ^^\^^P;""g take as a motto Tennyson's strong, sweet words 
that have the ring of a silver clarion in them : 

" Howe'er it be it seems to me 
'Tis only noble to be good. 
Kinds hearts are more than coronets, 
And simple faith than Norman blood." 




KINDNESS. 




There is an old proverb which runs in 
this wise : " Do a favor and lose a friend." 
We do not believe gratitude to be incompati- 
ble with other noble instincts of the liuman 
heart. We believe that persons can feel 
grateful forever, and cherish, with kindest 
memories, actions that are ofttimes only 
slight in themselves, but, coming as they 
did, at a time when they were needed, are 
never forgotten. There is everything in 
the way a favor is bestowed. If it is done 
with gentle smiles and kindly words, however small the service, it is 
more gratefully recollected than a much greater service would be, if 
grudgingly given. Against such actions our inner spirits rise in con- 
tradiction. Sometimes we feel almost an aversion against the donor, 
and however much we struggle with this sense of ingratitude, it is 
there, and will not down at our bidding. This feeling may always be 
justly ascribed to the fact that the service was rendered ungraciously. 
There are persons in this world who sometimes confer favors not 
because their feelings are kindly toward the object favored, but because 
they desire and expect gratitude in return, the sense of it being 
pleasant to the contemplation of the soul. Such persons are almost 
invariably disappointed. 

The expectation of the sentiment destroys the beauty and grace 
of the kindness. And yet this fashion of doing good, that at some 
future time good may be done in return, is the most ordinary way of 
" being kind." 

The true way to confer a favor is to do it so delicately that the re- 
cipient will not be oppressed by a sense of obligation ; an confraire, 
will feel almost as if they are the generous ones in allowing the kind- 
ness to be bestowed. Such a way of doing good is a fine art, and one 
person in fifty is possessed of it! And yet there are thousands of 
people who take great delight in performing praiseworthy actions and 
acts of benevolence, but who have about them such a cold, hard way, 
that it seems as if they were prompted by a sense of compulsive duty, 
and not by generous sentiment. 

But even this class is preferable to those mdividuals who lend to 
the Lord and expect usurer's interest for their charities ; in other words, 

(221) 



222 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

confer gifts graciously, and lay claim to the heart of the recipient with 
an air of 

" So much, for so much, — 
Riaho jirices." 

They are not unusually actuated by narrow motives ; they either 
expect an extended reputation for goodness and generosity, or a greater 
beneiit in return for the one conferred ; or they derive gratification 
from the sense of assuming an air of superiority as a benefactor and a 
philanthropist. 

Then, there are people in the world who are kind and charitable — 
impulsively or whimsically or spasmodically. But these lapses into 
goodness are dependent upon the effervescing exuberance of the heart, 
caused by some pleasant, but transient, excitement of the mind. An 
acquaintance in deep distress might go to such a one to-day and find 
him "the friend indeed," and going to-morrow instead of to-day, 
might be repelled with cold indifference! 

"The true way to bless is to be blessed," a sweet poet tells us, and 
that is the moral of it all. True kindness of heart instinctively seeks 
to communicate peace and pleasure to all within the circle of its influ- 
ence, and the delight which is derived from the power of benefaction 
is all that the donor desires in return. 

The purest kindness, and the noblest charity, is to love your neigh- 
bor by doing good to him first, that he may be loved as a consequence 
of you having had the chance to be good to him. 

Genuine kindness of the soul — deep-rooted, and nourished from a 
holy source — is that principle which increases our love for those to 
whom we have been kind, and who were so conditioned as to need 
such goodness at our hands. Kindness does not always mean tangible 
and undeniable service ; its most incalculable benefits are gentle actions, 
and loving looks, and sympathetic utterances. 

So many hearts grow hard and rotigh in this world, because around 
them, in their daily lives, there is no blessed atmosphere of goodness 
— no soft, humanizing influence of love and gendeness and considera- 
tion. God pity such ! When the heart is kind and the mind is sym- 
pathetic, it looks through the eyes, it speaks in the voice, it guides the 
hands, it actuates the motions, and makes one feel as if he could clasp 
the universe to his heart in the fullness of his love. Being kind and 
good is the chief delight of existence, and the bare idea of remunera- 
tion or return of benefits bestowed is painful, and lessens his sense of 
happiness. 

Such a character is never mistaken. St. Paul exclaimed : "Ye are 
not your own." If we contrasted the good we do our fellowmen 



KINDNESS. 223 

with the goodness of God to us — contrasted them as the finite alone 
can be contrasted with the Infinite — what would remain to us if God 
claimed from us a return for all He bestows? Life itself would cease! 
We would be atoms in a vast aggregate. 

If we belong to God rather than to ourselves, what right have we 
to claim gratitude for the benefits we bestow upon our fellow-mortals, 
when we so seldom remember the gratitude we owe to Him, our Lord 
and Master ? When we demand compensation for the good we are en- 
abled to do, when a sense of doing something that may redound to our 
interest springs up, then we are selfish ; and self-love, or a desire for 
gain, or a trivial whim actuates us, and not charity, not love for a fel- 
low-being, and not kindness. Not many among us will be able always 
to stand the Ithuriel test. 

But doubt not the purely charitable and kind are the chosen and be- 
loved of God, and He forgets not one among them now, and will for- 
get them not in the hereafter. 




NOTABLE CHARACTERS. 



Who May be seen Frequenting the Court-rooms and 
Other Public Places. 

The public may have some curiosity to know how to apply the 
soubriquet of the "Wisdom Horse," the "Smart Aleck," and "The 
Whacker." We will try to give an explanation of them in rotation ; 
and, after informing our readers who they are, we will conclude in a 
second edition with "The Tramp," "The Crank," and "TheTa Ta." 
and why they have been denominated by their respective mm de 
plume. 

The Wisdom Horse we will first consider, as he seems to be of more 
importance, especially in his own estimation, than any of the other 
persons in the text. 

The owl is the emblem of wisdom, owin<T to 
his aplomb when perched upon a tree, with his 
large sapphire eyes peering into space, unconscious 
of any danger that may surround him. So with 
the Wisdom Horse, who lives, apparently, upon 
his own admiration, ever ready to impart his store 
of knowledge to those who are willing to be pun- 
ished by him in the long and minute details of 
his information. He receives the most startling 
sensation with the air of a stoic, and never stoops 
to learn anything whatsoever, as he knows it all by 
isDOM HoRSF. intuition, being the receptacle of some infinite 
artist, who bestowed upon him, individually, this wonderful look of 
the magician— this overawing, august air of the ' ' big I " and * ' litde u. " 
Secondly : The Smart Aleck is a didapper in apjjearance and wears 
clothes of the most approved styles, and very generally wears an 
attenuated moustache, and carries a small cane of some fancy shape 
and unknown material, which to explain he intrudes himself upon a 
party for the i)urpose, ostensibly, of giving its history and the manner 
in which he came in possession of it, etc. This opportunity is gen- 
erally sought by him when he has diagnosed the hour i'or the party 

upon whom he thrust himself to be about going for some " O. P." 

which means other people's whisky— a brand which the most fastidious 
drinker rarely fails to take. It is well-known throughout the State, and 
generally accepted by all who love the flowing bowl. 

(224) 




NOTABLE CHARACTERS. 



225 




The Smart Aleck can hardly be distinguished from the ''Ta-Ta, "' 
from the fact that he frequents all the places of public amusement 
alike, takes the front seat, if possible, and looks down 
upon the audience as though they were, indeed, the 
sublunary things, and most frequently applauds at the 
wrong place, and if he sees his mistake he calls it aesthetic, 
and passes on perfectly satisfied, thinking he made a 
mash on the f;iir-haired girl on the right, whose observa- 
tion was simply attracted by his ignorance and his ])re- 
sumptuous manner, which is always a profound blunder 
and never assumed, save to the disgust of the refined 
and well-bred folk, who are ever at ease, whether in 
the mansion of an aristocrat or before the footlights, 
where the hearts of the beautiful and brave throb in 
' " unison. Before this person the pretensions of the Smart 

The Smart Aleck. ^\it^ck sink into oblivion, and his impressions, if any are 
ever made by him, strand on some unknown shore, and are finally 
snowed under from the eye of the living. 

The "Whacker" is the person who desires, 
above all other things, to '• stand in" with the 
lawyer. They belong to that idyllic class who 
are ever ready to tell clients who are the best 
lawyers — those who will stand by the cold 
tombstone when they are dead — such is the 
tenacity of the man whom they propose to indi- 
cate to the unwary to employ in their cases; 
but you must understand that the "whacker" 
is to have a portion of whatever amount the 
lawyer receives, as his fee. It was this class of 
persons who caused the Legislature to pass a bill 
making such "professional" business a mis- 
demeanor. This progressive step toward the 
discomfiture of the "whacker," and for the 
relief of those lawyers who have been giving 
succor to such characters ; who have got many 
of the litigants mulcted and tangled in the web 
of legal lore, and who are compelled to pay the 
penalty of their want of sense — this progressive step should be greeted 
with much joy by every honorable man. If the law should be strictly 
enforced, it will be a blessing to honest attorneys, and their clients 
alike, and will rid the country of a certain class of purveyors to avarice, 
for their occupation will be gone, as it should be. 
15 




The Whacker. 



226 



MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 



As the Tramp is of the oldest origui, he will be the first considered. 
The tramp is likely to be found anywhere upon the habitable globe. 
He migrates like a bird ; his location is governed by the seasons and 
controlled by the prospect of supplies during his rapid transits. He 
flees from labor and everything that bears a resemblance to labor, as a 
sinner is supposed to flee from the wrath to come. 

He is as entertaining as he is "odd," owing mainly to his thor- 
ough knowledge of the geography of his country and his power to 
delineate, with graphic speech and gesture, the great railroad lines that 
in their intricacy puzzle a novice, and, indeed, are a matter of wonder 
to the intelligent; yet the "tramp" is familiar with all the crossing 
and interlacing and parallels of every railroad route in the Union, and 
he descants upon them with the easy facility that a novelist exhibits in 
disposing of his characters of fancy, weaving about them the wonder- 
ful meshes of imagination, and making them, to eye and heart, real 
as the living beings of which they are the prototypes. 

He has the names of prominent men upon the tip 
of his tongue, and speaks of them with that gracious 
familiarity, that peculiar bonhomie exhibited by those 
who talk of their personal acquaintances or cherished 
friends. He recites his travels and his experiences 
with a tongue as silvery as Othello's ; gives accounts 
ef great battles, in all of which he participated "dur- 
ing the late war," until the credulous and the romantic 
imagine the halo of heroism encircles his brow : and it 
matters not in his recountals whether two battles were 
fought on the .same day or not — and hundreds of miles 
apart ! — he was there ! — participating in the perils of 
both contests; and, like the plume of Murat, he could 
have been seen — everywhere at the same time — in the 
thickest of the battle-smoke. Upon the conclusion 
of these impromptu historic recitations they are at lib- 
erty to give him the best their larder affords, and to slake his thirst 
from the choice bottle of "family bitters." That a "tramp" could 
gain entre to an establishment that could boast much, either to eat or 
drink, may seem altogether improbable to the cautious habitue of the 
city, but that they do mulct the unsophisticated in the country has 
been demonstrated too often to doubt the probability of the asser- 
tion. Some of them can repeat poetry from old authors, discuss 
mythological characters, displaying a thorough knowlege of ancient 
and pagan history; and being quite as much " at home" in the mythi- 
cal ages, with the gods of imagery, as with railroad kings and the lacing 




The Tramp. 



NOTABLE CHARACTERS, 



227 



lines of road that span the country from lake to gulf and ocean to 
ocean. These mental displays — and they are not infrequent — are 
potent signs of " other days" — better days — when these nomads had 
futures, and when loving hearts hoped for them and loving hands 
labored for them to elevate them in the scale of human worth and 
mortal intelligence. 

And at last! their wonderful gifts of memory, their often brilliant 
flights of fancy are used simply as " entering wedges," enabling them 
to remain fugitives from labor. 

They refuse to adopt avocations, by which means they might earn 
honorable livelihoods and become responsible citizens of some Com- 
monwealth and respected members of society. If you wish to insult 
one of them, simply suggest to them that steady work is preferable to 
such precarious modes of living. The air of disdain and contempt 
they assume on such occasions is as good as a play. And they are 
almost sure to disappear on the next train, bound for parts unknown. 
What arrangements they make with conductors on the railroads is 
something of which history has not yet given strict account. One 
thing is certain beyond peradventure : the tramp is indigenous to every 
clime alike. The writer of these lines questioned Henry Clay, after 
his return from seeking the "Open Sea," if he met any "tramps" 
when in Lady Franklin Land — rather doubting, when he propounded 
the inquiry, whether the individuals in question could travel so far 
toward the frigid zone — but the conscious smile the gentleman gave to 
the seeker after migratory species of the human race convinced him 
that the northern-bound traveler had met them in his peregrinations 
toward the pole, and, indeed, that they abound everywhere upon the 
face of the earth, whether it be in the frozen land of ice and snow and 

whirling winds, where jagged glaciers rear 

their glittering and prismatic peaks toward 
the clouded sky; or in the tropic zone, 
where all day long the golden-winged sun- 
beams play hide and seek among the vari- 
egated blossoms, and all night long the rich 
aroma of their brilliant hearts is fanned 
about by balmy zephyrs, lulling the soul 
with elysian dreams of harmony and repose. 

The Crank, in character and habits, is 
altogether unlike the "tramp." He seems 
to have an especial antipathy to boarding- 
house keepers, and cherishes an infinite 
delight in "beating" them out of "grub. 




The Crank. 
He esteems himself 



228 



MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 



capable of filling any office within the gift of the people, and proving 
not only an honor to himself, but a glory to the Commonwealth and 
a pride to the nation. 

He has an absolute mania for notoriety. He loves to be seen in 
front of ''first-class hotels;" he will stand there for hours chewing a 
toothpick, with his feet pointing to the east and west, and his hands 
stowed away in his pockets, fancying that he has the air impressive 
which will lead every passer-by to imagine him a ' ' boarder." If a nota- 
ble personage should chance to register at the establishment, he is the 
first man to interview him upon the general topics of the day, and he 
is almost certain to beat him "on the turn " out of a drink and a cigar. 
If he succeeds in obtaining a sufficient number of beverages, he is 
more than likely to " wind up " with an attempt to blow out the brains 
or sever the jugular of somebody. 

He does not wait for insult or aggressive act ; he is a disciple of 
the law of eternal antipathies, and he anticipates acts of violence and 
commits desperate deeds under the inspiration of momentary insanity, 
which is the modern manner of defining a man's disposition when 
"chuck full" of whisky — and, generally, whisky paid for by some 
one else. These violent deeds are seldom perpetrated save in some 
conspicuous place where there is a prospect for notoriety. " Cranks" 
are usually morose villains, and ought to be shunned by every class 
and condition. They are dangerous, and any one who admits them 
to their acquaintance runs the risk of being killed 
the first time they get hungry or drunk. To feel 
a craving for food or a thirst for liquor is with a 
crank sufficient incentive for him to become 
annoying, persistent, insolent, dangerous to all 
mankind ; for it is quite uncertain what will incite 
anger, or, once aroused, upon whom the lightning 
of violence may be hurled. 

The Ta Ta, in society parlance, is a nosegay! 
His peculiarities are of a different character from 
those that belong to the "wisdom horse," "the 
smart Aleck," "the whacker," "the tramp," or 
the "crank," but they are equally distinctive, 
equally characteristic. The " ta-ta " prides him- 
self upon his shape and talent, especially and 
exclusively. He considers every female whose eye 
chances — even casually — to rest on his Adonis-like form as particu- 
larly "mashed on him." He has the air of one who constantly shrugs 
his shoulders (as some created thing in a lower order of the universe 




The Ta-Ta. 



NOTABLE CHARACTERS. 229 

might do who shakes off one skin to take on another of newer beauty), 
as if that non sequitur air rendered him more attractive to the girls. 
The "ta-ta" is to be seen in all cities, foreign and American, and is 
to be as easily recognized by his characteristic demeanor as a leopard 
is to be known by its spots. The manner in which he wears his attire 
and the style of it, the importance he assumes when he enters a place 
of public resort, the sly but interrogatory glances he casts — from 
behind his screening "gig lamps," resting lightly upon his proboscis — 
makes one conscious of him as a social idiosyncrasy. He has such an 
overwhelming air; he uses such pungent perfume upon his handker- 
chief and his hair that the powerful aroma about him rivals the civet 
cat. He never tries his blandishments on the matrons; his harmless 
little flirtatious behavior they disdain to notice ; his specialty is to 
"make mashes" on the girls, and it is for them he plays the part of 
a modern Beau Brummel ! He considers himself a heart-breaker, and 
that for the wounds he creates in suscei^tible hearts there is no known 
cure. Therapeutics suggest no remedy, and the skill of the ph}sician 
has never yet learned how to prescribe for that perilous stuff that 
weighs upon the heart. The "ta-ta" is a "masher" who directs his 
Cupidian shafts at the innocent and unsuspecting. He is, with the 
credulous, simply an overpowering "stunner," who woos "on the 
wing," charms with his shape, and fascinates with his talents. He is 
as fatal to some hearts as "Rough on Rats" is fatal to the ordinary 
rodent. He is a Liliputian monster springing into insignificant but 
undeniable existence from the idiocy of man, as unaccountably as ever 
Minerva sprang full grown from the head of a god ! He is no more 
to human life than an excrescence. He would be like the pendant 
dewdrop on the opening rose — if he could. But rather is he the canker 
that gathers around and fastens on the bud. Beware of him ! ' ' Maud" 




OUR DEAD-PRESERVE THEIR MEMORlES-1 876. 

Sitting alone in my sunshiny sanctum to-day, "a sweetly solemn 
thought comes to me o'er and o'er." I am thinking of our dead, and 
that in this, the centennial year, while the world goes on with its feast- 
ing and fasting, the beautiful custom of strewing the graves of the 
dead soldiery, North and South, with floral offerings has been every- 
where observed. The custom is a most holy and lovely one, and it 
should be perpetuated through all the years to come. I can conceive 
of nothing more Christian-like and ennobling to the finer feelings of 
human nature than this culling of flowers by matron and sire, )^outh 
and maiden, to strew over the green mounds and wreathe about the 
marble columns that chronicle in enduring stone the bravery of those 
who fell discharging their duty to their country's flag and in defense of 
their national rights. 

In by-gone times, the 4th of July and the 2 2d of February were 
days anticipated long before their advent in every community in the 
States (for in every one were descendants of those illustrious men who 
fought in the American Revolution), anticipated as the days when 
orators would extol the chivalric deeds and the Spartan courage and 
daring of those who bore arms for seven long years, until the result 
desired was heroically attained, and as a rich heritage this vast coun- 
try, replete with marvelous capabilities and wonderful resources, was 
left to their posterity. And the celebration of the 4ih of [uly and 
the 2 2d of February is a beautiful custom indissolubly associated with 
the names of America's noblest sons. When we have summed up all 
that is attractive in the past to their heroic deeds we can trace the 
source of all of our present enjoyments. 

(230) 



OUR DEAD. 231 

The United States of America are the achievements of the soldiers 
of 1776. Led by George Washington, and imbued with patriotism and 
capable of long endurance, they finally wrenched independence from 
the British crown. War after war ensued, and, as often as the tocsin 
sounded, victory perched upon our banner. 

And now, at last, after a fierce and bloody civil strife, when the 
flags of defiance are furled, and the swords are left to rust in their 
scabbards, it is for the noble women of the country to strew flowers on 
the graves of our hero dead. It is a labor of love which should never 
be carelessly performed. Some day should be set apart with all due 
solemnity for the consecration of their last resting-places, and orators 
should blend the blossoms of their heaven-born genius and eloquence 
with the brightness and sweetness of the earthly flowers, and decorating 
and hallowing the graves of our dead and "gone before" so perpetu- 
ate their memories, irrespective of the uniforms they wore or the cause 
they espoused. 

All the rare and roseate loveliness Nature affords should be com- 
bined, until the many God's acres over our land should bloom in beauty 
like the Rose of Sharon. 

Neither adversity nor ingratitude should mar this custom made holy 
by Its observance. And we depend upon the noble women of the 
land to perpetuate it. God bless them ! They constitute the real 
incentive to our noblest deeds! They fill our land with hope and joy. 
To them we owe much, aye, all we are and all we can ever hope to be, 
singly and collectively. 

Floral offerings at the resting-places of the dead is one of the most 
beautiful of customs. And it is fitting that the fair hands of women 
should evince this affection and respect for those who died in defense 
of them and their native land, who fought for principle and perished 
in their endeavor to uphold liberty. 

Let us scatter over their graves the fairest and sweetest flowers. 
Let us cherish the memory of them, and when we die let us leave it 
as a heritage to our children, which may not pass away while the light 
of reason shines, and the soul aspires to a life that is purer and more 
ennobling than any this earth affords. 




OUR HAPPIEST DAYS. 

Of all the days that dawn and darken over the hfe-path, those of 
youth are the brightest and freest from care. There are those in this 
world who laugh over the wild romance and wayward wanderings and 
fanciful flights of the imagination incident to early years and light 
hearts; but after all the philosophizing is done, there are halcyon mem- 
ories springing in the heart, that glow with freshness and beauty, and 
brighten the life of their treasurer as the green oases in the arid desert 
delight the traveler who, through burning sands and glaring sun, has 
kept body and soul together with visions of the date and palm, and the 
cool drip of sparkling waters flowing through the siiadows. 

Age grows apace, and brings with it attendant cares, infirmities, 
sorrows, and troubles, but the oldest and the most utterly bowed down 
can l)e lifted up and strengthened by one hour's fond recollection of the 
past, when pleasures were unalloyed, and the juvenile heart beat in 
union with the youthful emotions of hope and delight. O! who dares 
compare manhood's sober realities, which overtake us in the autumn and 
the winter of life, with the buoyancy and beauty of sunshiny, laughter- 
loving, mirth-making youth ? Who dares weigh the pleasure of c^ount- 
ing gains and losses with the pleasing memories of sinless, earlier years? 
The man's heart must be callous, indeed, whose life does not bear on 
some pages— tear-blotted from frequent readings— the record of celes- 
tial joys indelibly engraven upon the heart in youth to live there in 
silent and unfading beauty as the latent caloric lives in the eternal rock, 

(232) 



OUR HAPPIEST DAYS. 



233 



waiting only to be smitten by the impulse of some passionately tender 
thoughts to start into splendor and power! O! these memories of 
careless joys we realized when basking in youth's rosy morning, kissed 
by balmy winds, and shone on by a sun in cloudless skies. Nothing 
can recompense us for the loss of these ; for the freshness and the 
beauty; for the pure happiness, born of untainted thought. Cherish, 
all who can— however silvered and bowed and furrowed with age- 
cherish the memories of those lost, happy days. They are the best of 
all a household's transitory stores. 

Gold and silver, and glittering gems and sparkling jewels, are all 
alike perishable baubles, and if the mind be chained to them and absorbed 
by them, the day will come when it will be incapable of grander or 
loftier thoughts, and untainted and untrammeled emotions will be foreign 
and undesired Scorn be upon the man or woman whose lives, souls, 
minds, energies, bodies, are all alike— physically and mentally— bound 
up in the one isolating thought as to the wisest and quickest modus 
operandi oi scraping dollars together! Scorn be upon them that they 
do not exhibit a disposition to take some time to cultivate the higher 
and holier emotions, but go plodding on to the grave's brink, thinking 
of nothing, caring for nothing, save the accumulation of wealth. After 
all they die and leave it. Their first, last, and only love! And yet it 
never for one instant gives to them the substantial pleasure and the 
measureless delight afforded those who love to revert to the unspotted 
joys of youth— when Hope was glad and gay as "Eden's garden bird," 
and Love's wings were untarnished in their gauzy gold ; nor yet does 
it give to them the joys and sunlit beauty that are born of the day 
when the sun shines on our youth, even though it should afterward 
die down like a sweet flower when that same sun sets in darkness that 
may or may not be lit by the eternal stars of faith. 



OUR SACRED PAST. 




A Speech Delivered in Harrodsburg, Ky., July 4, 1874. 

While civilization is making such strides 
over the length and breadth of the New 
World, spanning our beautiful country 
with growing prosperity and intelligence 
from ocean to ocean, from the lakes to 
the gulf ; while the wild territories, under 
the same magic wand, are rapidly devel- 
oping into populous countries soon to 
resolve themselves into States and form 
DANIEL BOONE. additional stars in the already radiant 

(Daniel Boone s ivi/e and daitzhter /,^„,.+<ill„t' „ „r ^ i i- • i 

foundhhytatBoonesioro, in Madison coustellation of a great republic ; amid 
':;^;!''Hi:::i/:'aZd:::Sri^1L ^^^ msh and roar of the world of to- 
lT.J:f./.;T:;;;^';,-r ; "'' "" day ; mied with the clash of its contend- 
ing armies ; athirst for fame, and gold, and 
glory; seekmg gain and emolument at the cannon's mouth; in the 
halls of legislation, in the arena of society, at the loom, at the printing 
press, in the factories, in politics, in mechanics, in science, in philoso- 
phy, and in literature, a man may excite surprise who pauses in the 
progressive march of life, and turns— as Adam must have turned, with 
sad and longing eyes, to view for the last time that blessed paradise 
from which he was expelled forever— turns to view the hallowed realm 
of the sacred past, which contains much that is dear to memory ; more 
that is enshrined in our hearts, and most that is the imperishable record 
of our country and our Commonwealth. 

The early history of Kentucky offers me the excuse, if such be 
needed, for treating upon the subject of this sacred past, to-day, rather 
than the life and action of the present, especially as the names of my 
own ancestors are indissolul)ly connected with those who long ago 
won for you and me so much of the State renown enjoyed then and 
enjo)ed now. This is my apology, this is the incentive that stimu- 
lates me to add my appreciative voice to the chorus who cry, " Evoe ! " 
to Kentucky and her great men. 

I confess I have an imperishable fondness for the old landmarks 
and every incident of her pioneer history. 

In the winter of 1773 James Harrod, with his compatriots, con- 
sisting of the McAfees, the McCouns, and others, while the army of 

(234) 



OUR SACRED PAST. 



235 



the Revolution was in winter quarters, left Fort Chizel, in the Maxey 
Meadow Bottoms, in Wythe county, Va., passed through Louisa Fork, 
descended along tlie water-courses, westward, to the mouth of the Big 
Sandy river, and bivouacked at the Falls, upon the Ohio river, where 
the city of Louisville now stands. 

From thence they ascended the Kentucky river to Frankfort, where 
Robert McAfee made a survey, but there they did not sink their shaft, 
and cry with the red man, " A la-ba-ma " (Here let us rest). 

They came on to the point where Harrodsburg now stands, and 
here they established the first fort, attracted, it is generally believed, 
by the many caverns in the vicinity, and by the fine water abounding 
everywhere. 

This was the earliest settlement of Kentucky, and from it they gave 
battle to the Indians. 

When the spring of the same year came with the birds and blossoms, 
these daring spirits returned to their command, which, at tht time, 
was guarding the lead mines upon the banks of New river, a stream 
which is familiar to many of my auditory. 

Kentucky ! • ' The dark and bloody ground ! " 

Her very name is an epitome of the early history of her dark and 
bloody conflicts with the savage and wily foe! Not only does it owe 
its name to the Indian forays upon the whites, but to its being the 
grand battle-ground between the Northern and Southern Indians. And 
thus doubly-dyed with the blood of foe and friend is almost every rood 
of ground that to-day is rolled out in meadow lands or well-tilled fields 
or forests of primeval grandeur, with the earth beneath their umbrage- 
ous boughs, green and fragrant with the feathery tufts of bluegrass 
indigenous to the soil. 

Ah 1 how often, when ^^ ^|^<g# j?fr ^^ d^a "?^S,P^ 

a boy, I sat beside the 
old hearthstone of my 
grandmother, thrilled 
and filled with all a 
boy's impetuous love of 
danger and adventure, 
and with wide eyes of 
excited wonder and 
admiration, listened to 
her accounts (told in a 

quiet way. unconscious - i.- . o 

of heroism) of life dur- ^^°^^ °'^ ®^^"^^ mcafee. 

ing the early settlement of the State ; of how she lived in a humble cabin, 




236 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

Of how She guarded her sheep, driving wolves away at all hours of the 
night, from the "pen" which, for safety, was built adjoining the 
cabin, using her rifle as defdy as her needle, while my grandfather 
was navigating a flatboat upon the Ohio and Mississippi rivers going 
hundreds of miles to exchange one and another species of pro'vender 
for some necessary of life. Nor was my grandmother alone in this 
brave self-abnegation and heroism. Many and many another woman 
suhered and braved as much as she. 

And when I look on the array of brilliancy and Deauty, of wealth 
and culture, that meets us at every hand, in every church, on the 
streets, in the concert room, in all public assemblies; when 1 see the 
women of to-day arrayed in their purple and fine linen, with the 
peach-bloom on their cheeks, and eyes outvying the stars in their lus- 
ter; when I look on these fair, social divinities of today idly luxuri- 
ating m the roses and lilies of life, and remember the divinities of 
heart and home-the heroines of history, the true, staunch wives and 
daughters and mothers of a century ago, I tell you my heart swells 
with a pride and tenderness no words of mine can convey to you ' 

1 am touched almost to tears to remember that my grandmother 
was one of them !-that reared amid the perils of the time, she did 
not blush to wear homespun and leathern buskins, and to stand at 
the helm and carry the ship safely over the rough sea of adversity 
while my grandsire drifted on stormier waves of chance ! 

All honor to our grandmothers! Worthy are thev, indeed of our 
profoundest reverence, as they lie in shrouding dust to-dav, for they 
were capable, a hundred years ago, of deeds of heroism that handed 
their names down, generation after generation, as imperishable types 
of glory and of goodness ! 

I have cited my own ancestors in particular, because I know 
whereof I speak, and because this hour I delight to do homa-e to 
their memory. My people are not given to boasting ; they are^ pro- 
verbial for their secretiveness and modesty. They have always avoided 
anything hke heralding their exploits to the world ; but they have a 
history which, for cliarity and heroism, will compare favorably with 
any race of people in the Union. From the Revolution down to the 
present time they have fouglu in every war in which the United States 
has been engaged. 

And to-day, though generally pursuing peaceful avocations amid 
the marts of men, or tilling their own lands, touch on their family, and 
not a man. not a woman, not a child among them, but will be proud 
of their people and their past as all the Cssars in their palaces' I 
like It! I glory in it! 



OUR SACRED PAST. 237 



And if their own race is dear to tliem, judge how much dearer is 
their native State, our motto toeing : "God! Our State ! Our people !" 
No Laplander loves his polar snows ; no inhabitant of the torrid 
zone joys in the rich blossoms and the green dells of his own tropic 
clime; no few loves the thought of re-won Jerusalem, as my people 
love Kentucky ! 

Kentucky ! The very name swells my heart to childish weakness, 
and brings before me, like the looming figures in the vast Fata Mor- 
c^ana, the heroes and heroines who wrought out her history and estab- 
lished her nationality. 

The county of Mercer was not slow or backward in furnishing her 
quota, and to-day I hold up her record to the Argus eyes of the 
world. U)Ough they turn on her like a storm of stars. I hold it up 
with inhnitt^pride ; I dwell on it with infinite tenderness, and recall 
with feelings of the profoundest pathos, the names of those who have 
passed from the finite things of this world to the eternal glory of life 
bevond the stars! 

It was here that our forefathers felled the trees of the forest and 
kindled the first sparks of civilization, which have since spread mile 
after mile over the wilderness of the West with the unerring sweep of 
a praine fire without its devastating effects ; for now, in the waste places 
of the past, the lily blends its fragrance with the rose's sweet perfume; 
now cities and towns and villages, with their varied sounds of mirth 
and sorrow, of labor and merry-making, stand each and every one as 
monuments to the memory of the brave and the true, who lived, and 
struggled, and died for us ! 

And yet ! when in the past month the centennial day of the setde- 
ment of this very town dawned, passed the meridian, and died with the 
setting sun. how many among us knew, or cared to know, that day a 
whole century ago our forefathers built the first log hut ever erected on 
Kentucky soil?— two years before the Declaration of Independence! 
Not many, I opine ! This little world about us is too eager to be in the 
melee reigning in the marts of men— buying, selling, and progressmg 
they have the fever of the age too intensely to care for old land- 
marks or the sacredness of the past 1 

"They pray no longer for their daily bread, 
But next centenary's harvest." 

And yet, over the breadth of our State, from border to border, there 
are hundreds of hearts that revert with pride to the early history of the 
State, and p^ans are sung to the honored dead who came, in the 
glory and strength of their magnificent manhood, to this country while 



238 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

it was a wilderness; a wilderness, too, in possession of hostile tribes. 
The commerce of the country, then, consisted in maize and fish 
and wild game ; and the surest facility for securing the lattter lay in the 
rifle of the pioneer. The sources of revenue so much talked of now 
were undreamed of by them ! 

The great West, from the AUeghanies to the Pacific, spread out its 
varied panorama, and each sturdy hero felt that his country's glory 
depended on his individual hardihood, endurance, and faithful cour- 
age ; and they pulled, heart and hand, together, and together dared 
death and courted danger. 

To them we are indebted for the greatest agricultural section of the 
Federal Union! To them! Brawny-armed braves that they were, 
bearing the ensign of American liberty and progression through the 
forest depths, where compass and chart were alike unknown to them ! 

In the fertility of its soil, Kentucky rivals the most favored part of 
the Mississippi Valley, For richness and picturesqueness of scenery 
it is unsurpassed by any State in the Union ! "View the country," 
says Filson, '"round from the heads of the Licking, the Ohio, the 
Kentucky, Dick's, and down Green river, and you have one hundred 
square miles of the most extraordinary country on which the sun has 
ever shone ! " Aye ! And peopled with the descendants of the bravest, 
the staunchest, the truest men who ever shouldered rifles or lifted 
voices in the councils of a nation ! 

Just view the array of names handed down to posterity, and em- 
blazoned on the fadeless scroll of history ! The Breckinridges, the 
Marshalls, the Clays, the Hardins, the Helms, the Rowans, the Wick- 
liffes, the Shelbys, the Logans, the Underwoods, the McDowells, the 
Crittendens, the Moreheads, the Johnsons, the Daviesses, the Thomp- 
sons, the Aliens, the Menifees, the Glovers, the Butlers, the Owsleys, 
the McAfees, the Caldwells, the Headys, the Harlans, the Browns, 
etc. And so the list goes on, broadening and brightening with the 
flight of ages until it shines the envy and the admiration of the world ! 

Kentucky was, also, the central scene of the imputed intrigues of 
Aaron Burr and his coadjutors to form a Western Republic. But the 
Kentuckians, brave and frank in character, were not the material from 
which to manufacture rebels ; and the State which gave Henry Clay to 
the National Councils was not the one to foster disunionists. 

On, down, year after year, her sons (and many of them Mercer's 
sons, as well) added luster to the crown of glory she wore among 
States ! 

Just read Mercer's record! I call on all the counties in Kentucky 
to furnish an indi\idual one to surpass it. Mercer has furnished two 



OUR SACRED PAST. 239 

United States senators (John Adair and John B. Thompson), six con- 
gressmen (John Adair, Thomas P. Moore, John B. Thompson, Mihon 
J. Durham, Phil B. Thompson, Jr., and John M. Glover), one appel- 
late judge (S. S. Nicholas), and four circuit judges (John Bridges, Mil- 
ton J. Duiham, Charles A. Hardin, and James Q. Chenoweth), two 
ministers abroad, two surgeons in the United States army (Able and 
Thompson), to the State of Kentucky three governors, three lieuten- 
ant-governors, and the president of the first convention in 1792, and 
the first County Court was held here in 1777, with Colonel Tom Allen 
for clerk ! These are facts that shine on the brow of history like price- 
less gems. They are part of the State's glory. 

John Adair was a South Carolinian, but he came to Kentucky at an 
early age, and became one of her most distinguished sons. He was 
United States Senator and member of Congress. He was also gov- 
ernor of Kentucky, and he commanded the Kentuckians at New 
Orleans. 

Judge Robinson was born in Mercer county, and the county bears 
too freshly in mind and heart what and who he was for me to speak 
his praises here. 

Thomas P. Moore lived here; was in Congress, was charge d'affairs 
to Bogota, and was a colonel in the Mexican war. Like a comet he 
flashed across the heaven of life, lighting the whole social sphere with 
his splendor. And to-day ? But one man in the country knows his 
last earthly resting-place. 

Ben Hardin, John Rowan, and John B. Thompson all filled their 
niches in Kentucky's history. The former was more of a jurist than a 
statesman, and as such I have always heard him mentioned with a 
degree of respect paid to him only. 

Rowan was an advocate and a politician, who filled many high 
places with great satisfaction to the people. His diplomatic attain- 
ments were finished in the highest degree. 

In mentioning these two great men in Mercer's record, I do so 
because John B. Thompson was recognized as their successor. As an 
orator and an advocate he was peerless, and he reached the next 
highest position in the gift of the American people. He was born, 
educated, and died in this county, and if he left an enemy behind him 
not a man among us would know where to turn to find him. For a 
quarter of a century he stood like a tower of strength in this State, the 
pride of the county and a warm friend of Mr. Clay. 

Robert B. McAfee filled many public trusts ; was ever remarkably 
unassuming and modest. He left the most enduring monument to his 
many virtues as a Christian gentleman in the hearts of the people. He 



240 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

wrote the history of the war of 1812 and 1815; he was in the Legis 
lature ; he was Heutenant-governor ; he was minister to Bogota under 
President Jackson's administration. As a speaker, he was not eloquent, 
but forcible and practical. Yet he was a successful politician. His 
mind was mathematical in its bent rather than legal or political. He 
aided in the survey of Kentucky, and in fixing her boundaries. 

But where are we to find the successors to these children of Fame 
v.'ho "were not born to die?" — these heroes who merit the highest 
commendation and the profoundest reverence of their descendants? 

Monumental fame alone would be but a meager compliment, even 
though established in every county-seat throughout the Commonwealth I 
And yet it assuredly would be an incentive, an inspiration, to the present 
and coming generations to noble deeds in emulation of the past. Such 
a hallowed and holy past! It ought to fill all hearts with hope and 
ambition where sleep to-day but the idle vagaries of a goalless youth, 
overshadowed by eternal mental indolence — indolence which will as 
certainly destroy their power in the nationality of States, some day, as 
that terrible and deadly fire that fell upon the cities of the jjlain grav- 
ing the record of God's undying curse forever in the wastes of the 
desert ! 

Whatever may be the feelings of the progressionists in regard to the 
past, I would point the youth of Kentucky to it, and bid them let their 
future copy fair that past until 

" One by one they cross the portal 
Of the gate that open stands ; 
One by one they join the spirits 
In those far, immortal lands ! " 



REMARKS 




Upon the Death of Hon. James A. McCampbell in the 

House of Representatives, at Frankfort, 

Ky., January 15, 1873. 

_ ]\Ir. Speaker : I 

^^^'^""'^ can not resist giving 

jj^-* expression to the feeling that 

fills my heart on this occasion 

of the reassembling of the 

Legislature. I look about me 

and see everywhere the brave, intelligent faces 

of my colleagues, but there is one familiar 

countenance that is missing from our midst. 

The Hon. James A. McCampbell, from the 

county of Jessamine, has been gathered to his 

fatheis. 

It was my pleasure and honor to have known 
the deceased intimately. We were schoolboys together, and the pro- 
gression of time and the uncertamty of events never altered the fact of 
our friendship in after years, for, while we fought in different armies 
and were divided in politics, our social relations were never marred. 
No higher tribute can be paid to his memory to-day than to say he 
was a gentleman, whether in the councils of his State, in the salons of 
society, or in the privacy of his domestic circle. He was a thorough 
scholar, having at an early age received a diploma from Princeton 
College, and never losing in after life the love of study embraced 
within those classic walls. 

But even then, while yet in his youth, the ravages of the disease 
to which he afterward became a victim commenced to [jrey upon him. 
And such was the state of his health last winter -that several times 
he spoke to me in regard to resigning his seat upon this floor. I saw 
then, from every lineament of his face, that death had already laid his 
cold hand upon him, like an untimely frost. But 1 did not believe 
that this sad and solemn close of his career was so near at hand, as it 
eventually pro\ed. 

It is always melancholy to resign life even when we have 'i&w 
pleasures, for there is something lusty and delightful in the simple fact 
of living. But how much sadder it seems to go out "beyond the 
i6 (241J 



242 



MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 



soundings" forever, as he did, while the Christmas bells were chiming 
all over the land, " Peace on earth and good will to all men," and tlie 
world was making merry and rejoicing over the new year coming up 
with its hopes, and plans, and energies, and its dreams, and its 
delights, and desires. 

But there is one upon whom the infliction of his loss is sadder than 
we know. Let us turn our hearts toward the desolate hearthstone, 
where she saw the sun set — saw it set and leave behind '' the good old 
year, the dear old time, and all her peace of mind." Alas! for her! 
The new year can never bring back what the old year took away ; 
neither the dear face, the familiar form, nor yet the fond eyes and 
gentle voice that brought music and brightness to her heart and home. 

Let the years come and go as they may, he will never more see 

" The blossoms on the black thorn, 
The leaf upon the tree." 

The busy world will pass by his grave, forgetting and by him for- 
got ; but we who admired him as a man and valued him as a legisla- 
tor and loved him as a friend, 7iiie will mourn with her always, and 
our prayers will be, "God rest his soul forever!" 

The gentleman who occupies his chair (Hon. William Brown) let 
us hope may wear his mantle with honor, and leave in the hearts of 
his brother members that feeling of regard and respect which is always 
the highest meed a gentleman can win and wear, and which will for- 
ever be shrined with our memory of his predecessor as priceless pearls 
in a casket belonging to one we loved, and who, being gone from our 
midst, we grieve for sincerely. 




THE BLUE AND THE GRAY. 




A Suggestion that Kentucky Should Lead the Van in the 
Matter of a State Reunion of all the Soldiers of the War. 

In New York and Winches- 
ter, Va., conventions have been 
held by ex-Federal and ex-Con- 
federate associations for the pur- 
pose of harmonizing the feelings 
and fraternizing the interests of 
the people North and South. A 
similar meeting will be held in 
Owensboro, Daviess county, 
Ky. , on the 2 2d, 23d, and 24th 
of October, 1885, and a thor- 
ough appreciation of the kindly 
sentiments engendered by such 
community of interest and im- 
munity from error prompts me 
to give expression to a certain individuality of opinion which is but 
the faint heralding of the mighty voice of the people moved by one 
impulse, and held firm by one principle — the love of country and of 
liberty. 

Kentucky was the first Democratic State, after the war, to hold 
a convention. In May, 1866, the Democrats of Kentucky met in con- 
vention in the city of Louisville and nominated for clerk of the Court 
of Appeals Judge Alvin Duval, from the county of Scott. Colonel 
D. Howard Smith, who had been a colonel in General Morgan's Ken- 
tucky cavalry, and who afterward served as auditor of the State of 
Kentucky for twelve years, could have been nominated at that con- 
vention had it not been considered by the Democrats of other States as 
incompatible with party interests to nominate, at that time, an ex-Con- 
federate soldier for a State office. Colonel Smith gracefully yielded to 
what seemed to be necessary policy, and placed in nomination the 
gentleman indicated above, and at the August election of 1S66 he car- 
ried the flag of Democracy to victory, thereby reviving the old National 
Democratic party, which had in former years added luster to the 
country and its history. And from that day down to the present time 
the Democratic party has been in power in Kentucky, notwithstanding 

(243) 



244 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

the fact that the Republicans controlled the Government and a majority 
of the States in the Union from i860, when Mr. Lincoln was elected 
to the Presidency, to 1884, when Mr. Cleveland, of New York, who 
was the Democratic nominee, received a majority of the electoral vote 
and was inaugurated on March 4, 1885 — twenty-four years! And in 
the interim the war was fought, not merely on the vague impulse of 
civic strife where a contest for supremacy of power and property was 
held, but it was a question of right or wrong doing — a question of 
principle by which the country would be judged in ages yet unknown. 
According to the issue of the struggle, the negro was freed, the amend- 
ments to the Constitution were adopted, and reconstruction with its 
attendant evils carried to a degree which was appalling to the Demo- 
cratic party all over the country. But slowly and surely as the still, 
gray light of early dawn betokens the coming of the sun to brighten a 
darkened world with its refulgence, and send its quickening warmth 
into the heart of the earth, the signs of the times pointed to the ascend- 
ency of the Democratic party. And surely as the evolutions of time 
brought day and night, November 4, 1884, was the Waterloo of the 
Republican party. Millions of eager eyes read the signs aright, and 
millions of joyful voices hailed the national transformation with delight. 

Kentucky was the first State which knocked for admittance into the 
Union after the Revolutionary war. It is but a natural sequence of 
her character among the States that she should be the first to call a 
State reunion of her soldiers — those brave and heroic spirits who 
buckled on their armor and defended the principles for which they 
were willing to die. The blue and the gray have made history for the 
country at large which posterity will be proud to perpetuate. It mat- 
ters not under what flag these soldiers fought, their valiant deeds have 
become the rich heritage of the American people. 

The boundaries of a common country form tlie mausoleum of our 
brothers-in-arms; and their bones, it matters not where they may be 
interred, whenever claimed, belong to the respective States that gave 
them to the cause of liberty. The question, however, of the disposal 
we shall make of our illustrious dead when — 

"The nuillled tlrum'.s sad roll has beat 
The sokiiei's last tattoo," 

Was long ago settled when Colonel Theodore O'Hara, of Kentucky, 
wrote his poem, " The Bivouac of the Dead," and thus set, as it were, 
a consecrating seal upon the subject. The "gone before" are indeed 
beyond recall, I)ut it rests with us, the living, to perpetuate their heroic 
deeds. And in such heroic reunions only can we bring close to our 



THE BLUE AND THE GRAY. 245 

hearts the memories of our lost comrades, linked together like priceless 
gems upon a golden cord. We are growing old, and it assumes for us 
the importance of a duty that we shall imbue our children's hearts with 
the kindly feelings which engender pride in and love for our common 
country, and to teach them that it should be their universal boast that 
they belong to the greatest nation in the world, the freest, and the 
most enlightened. Think of the scope of iiO])ulated country ! Think 
of the immigration and the development of the United States ! 
Why, it has been with the strong, swift, majestic sweep of the 
eagle toward the sun that civilization has penetrated the wilderness 
of the West, girdled the prairies and tunneled the mountains, and 
stretched the electric wires, like silver lines, even to the golden 
gates of San Francisco. And this wonderful progress has been made 
within twenty years ! When we attempt with the absorbed gaze of a 
visionary to lift the misty veil of Isis which shrouds the unknown and 
the unseen, is there one among us who does not fancy the uplands of 
the future to be glowing in the sunshine of prosperity, peace, and 
happiness ? Is there one among us who does not feel a thrill of deep 
delight when he realizes that this rich national benison will descend 
undivided to our children, and to our children's children? 

The sons of Kentucky never shirk the issue of national afflxirs. 
They are, therefore, entitled to consideration in Governmental, State, 
and local matters. Her sons have fought in all the wars in which the 
United States has been engaged since the Revolution. The records of 
her services are to be found in the annals of the country. No State in 
the Union can produce the names of as many impassioned orators as 
Kentucky. The Clays, the Marshalls, the Menifees, the Hardins, the 
Rowans, McKenzie, and others have left an indelible impress upon the 
history of Kentucky. The harmony of their oratory has sung itself 
into our forests, and winds have wafted it from the mountain down to 
the shore, even as the voice of Demosthenes mingled its music with 
the thunder of the waves, and so goes sounding on from time to eter- 
nity. Therefore, it seems right and appropriate that Kentucky should 
set the example to her sister States in the matter of soldiers' reunions 
— and even as she once advocated neutrality, because of her love for 
all, does she to-day advocate fraternity and community of interest. 
Welcome, then, thrice welcome to those soldiers who, inspired by these 
sentiments of national pride and national regard, will indicate a time 
and place when we can hasten to take them by the hand, and look into 
their eyes, and listen to their happy voices, and thank God that we have 
"stacked arms" and that we are brothers who have learned to know 
that " united we stand, divided we fall! " 



THE FUTURE. 




^ HE future of life, when philosophically con- 
templated, is, at its best and at its worst, 
but little more than a journey taken through 
a foggy atmosphere ; for the reason that 
we never feel sure of our knowledge of the 
things that surround us save those which 
are present and in the most immediate cir- 
cle. Their proximity affords us intelligent 
comprehension of their color, size, and 
shape, and, moreover, we are able to judge 
of their helpfulness or harm, their baleful- 
ness or pleasantness as exactly bearing 
upon their relation to us ; but beyond the pale of proximity everything 
becomes proportionally dim, vague, and shadowy, for the reason that 
no man among us has ever been able to penetrate the mysterious realm 
of the beyond, that unknown borderland of the soul. The fog of 
doubt veils all things, and the more conscientious among us sometimes 
hesitate to commit themselves to an operation of even the real nature 
of what is before them. The uncertain light of chance sometimes 
penetrates the fog of surmise, but only long enough to let us see that 
the poet was a philosopher who wrote — 

" Things are not what they seem." 

The shadow of an awful coming dread sometimes looms before us 
in the gloom and shuts out the prospect of probable pleasant places 
we may by chance discover if the sun of hope shines, and often we 
sit down in it and feel almost ready to abandon our life journey at 
once and forever. But this is a coward's reckoning. No road was 
ever yet so rugged, no rocks were ever so hard and gigantic that the 
eye of faith, if it will only look, may not see some little thread of a 
path of safety that will lead us on securely to the topmost jjinnacle 
beyond the region of storms, where we may look down into the smiling 
and fruitful valleys that lie on the sloping side we have yet to tread. 
There is no fog the eye of faith may not pierce, but it so seldom cares 
in this prosaic age to see. 

Sometimes we are cheated with false semblances of greatness. We 
look aloft and see some ai)parently impossible bold projection looking 
skyward, and we attempt to climb and we succeed, only to find that 

(246) 



THE FUTURE. 247 

we liave animated ourselves with a vagrant hope, for it is only a pro- 
jecting cliff — not the golden summit to which the ambitious and the 
brave aspire. 

The constant uncertainties of the future make us oftentimes impa- 
tient of our fate. We flatter ourselves that in the way of experience 
t)r toil there is some grand height from which we shall be able to descry 
the way of our life's journey mapped out before us. We struggle on 
and on, and, gaining the eminence, discover at the last that when the 
mists of earth are past the clouds of heaven surround us, and we still 
grope step by step through the shadows toward eternal light. 

Sometimes we reach a low, green valley of delight, and indulge in 
the vague and winning dream that the rest of our journey lies over a 
smooth and pleasant way. The quietness and sweet peace that sur- 
round us with halcyon airs assure us that hills and mountains have 
been climbed and passed, and that no obstruction can again arise to 
bar our progress, when lo ! the gray mists that veil the face of the 
future deepen and darken until there is total blackness, and groping 
through it we discover the yawning chasm of doubt or the fathomless 
abyss of trial and temptation yawning, wide-mouthed and horrible, to 
engulf our soul. In vain we endeavor to turn back in the darkness, 
which is so dreadful, in order to essay a search for some by-path out of 
chaos we may have overlooked. In vain ! for the hungry horror of 
that chasm confronts us. We can not avoid it. We strive to pene- 
trate its dismal shadows and discover what lies at the bottom, in order 
to summon requisite faith and arm ourselves with requisite courage. 
But this effort is also futile. The shadows do not uplift themselves ; 
the distance does not narrow itself to the gauge of the human eye ; 
the gloom is not dissipated. How secure and blissful and peaceful is 
the past, which we once thought so barren of rich or ripe results, 
when compared with our awful ignorance of the future — the foothold 
that takes us over the chasm where we have to feel for each step before 
we dare to essay it ! It is all so dreadful ! The past is dead, its realms 
in the land of fairy, and it is as utterly impossible to go back as it 
seems to go forward, and always the gray mist of the unknown lies 
about us. Who among us does not realize in the present or remember 
as a part of the past that uncertain, pitiful groping for foothold across 
the awful abyss of trial and temptation ? Who among us does not recall 
the desperate spirit with which we clutched at everything that prom- 
ised assistance? And, ah! how often, when we seemed to most need 
su])port, have we found ourselves grasping some frail, unsubstantial 
thing that has taken slight root and is worthless to aid us, or else is 
rotten and bitter to the core? Who among us can not remember just 



248 _ MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

how we stumbled along, how the stones cut our feet, how we bruised 
ourselves on roots and stumps, how sometimes our bodies grew almost 
breathless with weariness, how our limbs trembled, how we tore our 
flesh, how our hands bled and our heads swam around and our hearts 
ached, and how, when the last atom of strength and courage and 
endurance seemed exhausted, we suddenly found ourselves near the 
River of Life, and the silver mists of the Valley of Happiness rising 
heavenward, and everywhere, far and near, the harvest fields of faith 
and courage, golden and fruitful, and everywhere the blossoms of truth 
and beauty filling the air with fragrance and color. 

This is, after all the horror of the awful abyss, the glory of the 
future that awaits every noble and courageous struggler up the steeps. 

The ultimate source, the eternal foundation, is forever wooing us 
from the dull commonplace to loftier heights. With humility soften- 
ing the soul, with faith beaming from the eyes, with the lips blooming 
into praise of the infinite delights that await the pure in heart, the true 
in principle, the ecstasy of a life well spent, when the future shall 
become the present and finally resolve itself into the imperishable past, 
is within the reach of every human heart, every human life. 



_^^ 




THE INGRATITUDE OF THE MASSES. 




HE heart is forever out-reaching for the ' ' far off, 
unattainable, and dim" — the mind is ever 
struggHng up toward the Hght of universal 
knowledge, which it can never reach. There 
are mediums of attainment, and the proudest 
attain the loftiest — that is, when pride is the 
^J synonym of ambition. But let a man— be he 
whom he may — dedicate his life, his heart, 
'^^^''~^^<3^^' his brain for the good of the people — the 
mao.,^o — M.i.d i..^ Jci) A'ill come to him when he will see that he has 
spent his years in following a chimera and a dream. When in the flush 
and flower of his glory and his life he is gathered to his fathers, his 
fate may be brighter (?) — he may be mentioned in a complimeat- 
ary notice as a "great luminary gone out," and anecdotes of his 
boyhood and early manhood will be told over the walnuts and wine in 
after-dinner talk. But should he be unfortunate enough to attain the 
zenith of his fame, and still hold fast to health with a long lease on 
life, he will eventually discover the fact that the gems in his crown of 
immortality are spurious, that the gold is glitter, and those who once 
sung his praises on tuneful lyres are many of them lyres of another 
type. The public is essentially fickle. Paris is not the only city under 
the sun that should bear the palm of that reputation. Our city — 
Louisville — can vie with it for that honor (?). We know of a great 
man — great by birth — great by education — -great by genius, who did 
public service for this city that honored him and honored it. He was 
once her feted son, a distinguished statesman, a peerless lawyer, a 
public servant, who was incapable of a dishonorable action ; holding 
high positions, he conferred honor upon them all. Yet, to-day, he's in 
a grave, lowly and forgotten, "unwept, unhonored, and unsung." 
None so j^oor as to do him reverence. Monuments are reared over 
the dry dust of those who have lain for a century dead ; but when the 
wound of such a public loss ought still to be bleeding afresh, the cica- 
trice on the public heart is not visible. Verily, fame to him was as 
"sounding brass and tinkling cymbal ! " Yet there seems little need 
to reproach the public heart that it has ceased to remember him ; for, 
while the post-office building stands — it is a monumental ])ile ! — while 
the canal serves the usages of trade, Humphrey Marshall can not be 
forgotten. The man who forgets self — the man who serves others 

(^49) 



^5° MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

and scorns to lie, to cheat, to bribe, to pander-is the man who fails to 
attain glory and gold and to keep it, in this essentially prosaic age 
We have noticed it since we gave thought at all to the subject that in 
this century, Dis-honesty is the best policy, especially in the public 
walks of life. Men may whisper among themselves-may secretly 
condemn corruption and fraud-but when the perpetrator passes bv 
be he clothed in rich vestments, be he generous in the matter of fine 
wines, and truffles, and bribes !_and his train of worshipers cast them- 
selves down before him, as the eastern men of old cast themselves in 
the dust when the king passed by. The heart of the people lusts 
after glitter and gaud and the flesh-pots of Egypt, and the wise and 
the brave and the beautiful, unless they offer it these " good things of 
earth," receive not its homage. After all, the untaught heart of the 
savage, which is won by a red blanket, a string of shining beads, and 
a drink of fire-water, is very like the educated (?) heart of the civilized 
people, only they demand-these good people-that those who dance 
shall pay the piper well. We have seen the brilliant go to unregretted 
graves; we have seen the incorruptible trampled in the dust • we have 
seen virtue fall in the race ; we have seen vice win the goal \ we have 
seen the honored dishonored, the distinguished forgotten, and all this 
by the people they entertained, honored, defended, loved, and served 
And the conviction Avas born in our soul that those who care for them- 
selves first, and other people afterward, are alwavs the ones to succeed 
It remains for circumstances to prove to us the contrary We are 
open to a new conviction like the masses, whose power of comprehen- 
sion and worship of popular idols reminds us of what Yibeur says of 
women : - They are like a pendulum whose motion is a continual reac- 
tion ; after going to the right it must return to the left, and then ac^ain 
to the right, and so on. Suppose, therefore, virtue is on one s'ide 
passion on the other, and the feminine pendulum is between the 
two, the chances are after striking violently on the right, it will return 
with no less force to the left." M'lle de la Valliere became Soeur 
Louise of Mercy after fondling upon her lap the head of Louis XII 
Can we have enough admiration for these sublime lunatics > Thus is 
It with the masses; they crown a head to-dav which tliev would mor- 
ally guillotine to-morrow. They sing " lo Triomi)e " 'in the brain 
to-day, which to morrow they will turn into a funeral cortege and sing 
no Te Deum. Let the man court public homage and applause who 
wishes It. He is fortunate if he dies young. In brief, like Iganarelle's 
wife, if he wishes to be whipped, may thev whip him ? There was 
an old sign that read, - Hair dressed according to peoi)lc'H own ideas " 
We are much of this opinion, and the people i)ull it any way 



WHITE HOUSE, Washington, D. C. 



THE THIRST FOR OFFICE. 

Kentuckians and Hibernians alike have a wonderful thirst for of- 
fice. Whether it be the brief authority they crave, or the public pelf, 
it would require a more thorough knowledge of the situation than the 
undersigned possesses in order to decide ; but it stands as a point of 
fact that, so far, the thirst has been unquenchable. Divers epidemics 
have devastated countries and States, but this bids fair, under the 
present political n-gim; to slaughter whole hecatombs of office-seek- 
ers. President-elect Cleveland will have an opportunity now of study- 
ing this singular phase of Kentucky character, which amounts almost 
to*'an idiosyncrasy with many of the geni/s homo within her borders. 
They will doubtless generally and particularly be seeking office at his 
hands, and, as a prelude to the subject-matter, will very learnedly des- 
cant upon the "blooded horse" and the "bluegrass region," and 
exhaustively treat of their untiring individual service to " the party!" 
Each one will discuss the products of his section, concluding always 
with a peroration upon his own fitness for the respective offices desired 
—of course to the advancement of every social, political, and mdi- 
vidual interest in the State. They resemble locusts— do these office- 
seekers. When they pounce down on a new public incumbent of 
high station— like the orthopterous insects who, settling down on the 
ea'rth, remain until they devour every green thing— they go to put m 
their claims, and get what they think their dues or— •' to stay all sum- 
mer."' 

In 1862. when General r.ragg returned from his Kentucky cam- 
pai^ni there were many Kentuckians who returned with him, fully 

(251) 



^52 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 

equipped with uniforms, booted and spurred, and ready to conquer 
nations— " domestic and foreign." The amusing part about the uni- 
forms was, that each one bore the insignia of rank the wearer had 
selected for himself, according to his imagined qualifications and his 
distinguished pomposity. Captains, majors, colonels, and lieutenant- 
colonels could be picked up by the hatful, as one would gather chin- 
quapins after the frost falls. How many generals— "brevet,*' "bricr- 
adier," and " major"— " deponent saith not." History renders no 
account of them, nor yet of the wounded and slain, but it is an in- 
contestible fact that, when an order was issued from the war depart- 
ment requiring them to join some command, there were scarcely suf- 
ficient '^ gaps" in the Cumberland mountains to grant them egress 
into Kentucky. 

Without office, many of them are mere fugitives from labor— any 
sort of labor, unless it be very light work and the intervals flitting 
between drinks. So many of them exist that they represent a " gen"- 
eral public " among themselves, and it is respectfully suggested that 
the sooner they are given to understand that they must rely upon their 
individual efforts for a support, the sooner will they be considered 
well-off in this world's goods. Many of those who seek office in this 
republican Government of ours are totally unqualified, except in con- 
ceit, yet they pant for "place" with a grim persistence which is 
amusing to the public eye— and their "ways and means" of obtain- 
ing it depend entirely upon the recommendation of those who occupy 
prominent positions in the respective civic offices of the State. 

We take it for granted that Mr. Cleveland is well versed in human 
nature, having contended with the lightning calculators of New York 
and held his own ; besides, he has proven himself an executive officer 
of marked ability, and we are forced into the conclusion, as a conse- 
quence, that many applicants for office will be sadly disappointed. 
Doubtless, about the 4th of March, the tide of applicant immigra- 
tion from Kentucky to Washington will exceed that of the '49ers who 
seized their grip-sacks, and in defiance of all obstacles, rushed franti- 
cally "Westward ho!" from the States to California in search of gold. 
Where some succeeded many failed. So will it be with the brilliant 
cortege that moves on Washington in " i)anoplied array."' There will 
they remain to be dallied with by other office-seekers in turn, even as 
the balls which are tossed to and fro by the muffled foot of the show- 
man—until, seized and decimated by an inflammatory epidemic called 
"Despair," they turn their serried ranks toward the Ohio river, and, 
reaching their various abodes, .settle down upon their " native heather" 
wiser and, if possible, (?) better men than when false ambition "fed 



THE INGRATITUDE OF THE MASSES. 253 

upon their damask cheeks" and led them to beUeve they were "most 
excellent timber" for governmental positions. 

It would be a source of general delight if all those who thirst for 
fat offices could be accommodated. It is suggested that the only fair 
outlook presented is to petition the Congress of the United States to 
increase the army and the navy, and allow those to select their rank 
to whom it IS not given. If the petition fails they can again return to 
the " sacred precincts of home." The arms of Kentucky are always 
outstretched— the heart of Kentucky is always ready to enfold her 
"wandering heroes" to her breast, and to "bind up their wounds," 
won, with their laurels, upon many a sanguinary field of glory. 

The Hibernians should not be overlooked in respect to office. 
They love position with deep devotion. They are a high souled, gen- 
erous race of people. History brisdes with their noble deeds, both in 
war and in literature. The modern Hibernian, though modest (some- 
times) reaches out— like Rembrandt's shadows absorbing the light— for 
distant places that are to be had for the asking. The party must be 
fully represented. It must extend its imperial aegis over all national- 
ities alike, and equal rights under the law, "regardless of race, color, 
or previous servitude," must be respected wherever the flag floats, be 
it over land or sea. 

Let us keep an eye on the victors in the coming contest for place. 
Let us trust with all the sincerity that hope holds out to the brave, 
that each applicant may receive his reward according to his merits, 
that none may go away unsatisfied or unfed; and. above all. beyond 
all, let us pray that the Democratic administration will be crowned 
with the laurels of a record as peerless as that of the past, on which 
the names of Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson are enrolled. 





Harrow on the Hill. 

THOUGHTS ABOUT BOYS. 

"Our early days, how often back. 
We turn on Life's bewildering track, 
To where o'er hill and valley plays 
The sunlight of our early days." 

Boys who turn deaf ears to the kindly admonitions of good mothers 
can never promise themselves or any one else comfort or pleasure in 
the fact of their existence. Show me a boy who disregards the advice 
of those who love and care for him, and I will show yoti, in return, 
a lad who may one day be visited (and wept over) by his mother either 
in the work-house or in the prison cell. He will not only wring her 
heart, when he is young, by his waywardness, but he will bring her to 
her grave in sorrow and bow her faster than age, when he attains his 
maturity. 

Many of our greatest men were guided in their youth by their 
mothers. Washington, Jackson, Douglas, and Clay were all alike left 
to the tender mercy of God and the fostering care of their widowed 
mothers. 

What shining lights to the world were they! What statues to fill 
niches in the halls of .Time ! 

In this city there are boys who could scarcely be controlled by a 
good-sized standing army. I can not conceive what they promise 
themselves ! What hope can they have for the future when they refuse 
to accept the admonition of praying mothers? How can 'they ever 

(254) 



THOUGHTS ABOUT BOYS. 255 

expect to become useful and respected members of society if they 
refuse to turn from their evil associates and make never an effort to be 
or to do better ? Why do they not attend the free schools or, if not 
that, study at home?^ Every boy should make it the hope of his 
youth, the pride of his manhood, to be an honorable member of 
society. They should prepare themselves to follow creditable pursuits 
in life, and, our word for it, they will be happier. 

Good sons make pleasant homes and happy mothers. No gloom 
ever shrouds the hearts haven which their presence may not dispel. 

Our republican institutions require that we should all have educa- 
tion enough to be capable of self-government, and happily, this priv- 
ilege is within the reach of all, through the magnificent system of free 

schools. 

Ignorance is the cause of a large percentage of the crimes which 
are committed. Civilization does away with much of the sin and suf- 
fering born of the stultification of soul. Culture of the mind is like 
inspiration. Genius that lies dormant is of as little worth to the world 
we live in as the jewels that sleep in unsunned splendor in the cav- 
ernous heart of the Ural mountains. Without enlightenment of the 
intellect no life reaches its highest and its best. These are earnest 
words. They are written with a desire to inspire the embryo states- 
men and presidents of our New World to learn early to dedicate their 
hearts, their thoughts, their whole lives to the development of good in 

the world. 

There are better ways of spending one's time than loafing on the 
corners, or playing games on the open street, or building bonfires and 
hallooing along the squares as if Bedlam were let loose and chaos had 
come again. 

Mothers and fathers should alike realize the old maxim: "As the 
twig is bent the tree inclines." Never spare the rod and spoil the 
child. If gentleness and firmness fail of success, then use more rig- 
orous rules, but, at all events, do not allow the young lives, dedicated 
to you for superior guidance, to grow like tares in a wheat-field or 
poppies amid the corn*, only to be trampled under foot at the harvesting, 
or uprooted to die under glaring sun and biting frost. 

Home influence is potential as fate. And with the mothers lies the 
labor through the heat and weariness of life's long day. 

But after all the years that come and go, when the aged look back 
and the youthful look forward, no love is like the patient hope, the 
abiding faith, the tender trust of a mother ! 

Look to it, my boys, that you cause yours neither heart-ache, nor 
pain, nor tears. When the time comes, as it surely will come, soon 



256 



MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 



or late, to all, when she, who guided your tottering steps and trained 
the lisping tongue of infancy, shall be no more, it will afford you un- 
speakable consolation to know that you were good, obedient sons, and 
that you were a comfort and source of pride to her who would have 
given her heart's blood at any time to serve and save you. 

Whatever else we may attain in this world of grandeur and glory, 
of honor and wealth, we never have but one mother, and when we 
lose her, we lose our best and most faithful friend, and nothing can 
ever fill the void she leaves, even in the coldest and most callous 
heart. 




TRUTH-A LOST ART -A SUNDAY MUSING. 




There was a time, in the primitive days of this 
country's civiUzation, when a man's word was his 
bond, for then truth was regarded as an established 
principle, as a fixed law, but the attrition of mind 
and the forceful necessities of existence, brought 
into active consideration by the struggle amid the 
marts of men, which engrosses the attention of 
every other person one meets, have long since 
evolved the fact, from the chaos of question and 
doubt, that truth has, at last, come to be considered 
in the light of a lost art, an obsolete acquirement, 
a pleasant myth, which, like many another charm- 
ing fallacy, has been consigned to the dust of for- 
getfulness and the darkness of oblivion. Black- 
stone's deductions of right and wrong, made after 
a profound study of human nature, and the laws 
governing it, were compressed into an aphorism 
which runs: " Act honestly, live honorably, and 
render to every man his dues." 

Those who can recall to mind the life of a half century ago can 
well remember that the judgment of Blackstone was the active princi- 
ple governing man's dealings with his fellowmen. and that the sin- 
cerest regard was paid to the truth l)y all who respected the institutions 
of our social and political government, and who felt that their personal 
welfare was involved in their perpetuity ; but the multiplicity of in- 
terests and the ambition among men to accumulate money at whatever 
cost has completely metamorphosed society, and cut in. twain the only 
artery which gave life to the Church and upheld virtue — the underly- 
ing sill of the pulpit. How different the consideration awarded even the 
word " truth "' in the present day in comparison with the reverence its 
simple utterance evoked in the past ! Then it was a benign and ques- 
tioned {)rinciple whose existence meant only good. Now, by many, 
it is looked upon as an isolated term in the vocabulary, meaning less 
than nothing when brought in opposition to the devices of the ma- 
gician. Chance, which are offered as substitutes, whose rise insures the 
gaining of gold, with which they will be enabled to l)uy the paltry 
things of earth, whose glitter and gaud will vie accejjtably with the 
gilded trappings of those vain and senseless creatures who crave all 

(257) 



258 



MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 



else but that which elevates the m.nd and beautifies the soul Show 
me the man whose ambition prompts him to develop in his family a 
love of the truth, and I will lead you by paths of pleasantness to the 
home of happmess and peace, where respect for sacred things is held 
more dear than all the jewels that are or ever were set in the kinc^jy 
crowns of earth. There is an eloquent passage in St. Matthew whfch 
reads m this wise : - For what is a man profited if he shall gain the 
whole world and lose his own-soul ? " And, thinking of it to-day I 
wonder how the millionaires of this country can read^of the -reat suf 
fering of even the little children, hidden amid the shado^yv a^/ de-sacs 
of cities, shut out from blue skies and blooming plants, from whisper- 
ing winds and God's own sunlight, with little food and less raiment 
and scarcely a roof to protect them when the frozen blasts of winter 
shall pierce their wan and shivering forms like darts from Death's 
quiver, without themselves feeling the keen stings of remorse pen- 
etrating their stultified consciences and shattering their self-esteem i 
Ah ! what a blessed boon is it that the pen and press alike afford facil- 
ities for the expression of one's feelings and the upholding of one's 
sentiments without fear or favor, whatever the floating problem of life 
which elicits sympathy or enchains interest ! To me, it has always 
been the cause of wonderment how a man could legitimately accumu- 
late a million of dollars when there are so many destitute sOuls in the 
world pleading through their tired eves and with their tongues 
parched with famine and fever, for meat and bread, the simplest 
nourishments that form the staff of life; and how, after he has obtained 
that sum, he can, by any possibility, hold it and believe in the sub- 
lime lessons of charity and love for our fellowmen, tau-ht in the 
divine pages of the Holy Bible, is a still greater cause for wo'iiderment 
To understand the "true inwardness" of such a soul would make 
even a pitying angel weep over its unhappy knowledge ! His miserly 
hand, like Ishmael's, must, indeed, be turned against the world ■ but 
can the fact be doubted that he feeds upon the vitals of the wo ' 
despises? The burning sands of the desert to such a soul wr 
hke the curled petals of full-blown roses in comparison to the 
the infernal regions, which he merits, and which we can see burning 
forever through the eyes of Dante's genius. U a surplus of riches 
brings Its consequent evils, so does poverty, like Sisyphus, bear about 
the burden of a curse. When a man becomes so careless and slovenly 
as to forget the amenities due to himself individually, and society in 
general, he is the scoria of what was— nothing more— and he has'be- 
come repulsive to his own sense of refinement, as well as to that (jual- 
ity in others, a quality which bolsters spirit and heart in hours of the 



TRUTH A LOSr ART. 



259 



darkest depression, so long as it exists at all. Such a being, to the 
world in which he lives, is as harmless as the dew without its humid 
breath. He certainly is not of as great consideration to Nature, who 
is our universal mother. 

The poor are spread like poppies all over the face of the earth, and 
that this is true seems but. a fulfillment of the divine Master's words, 
when he said : " For the poor ye shall have with you always! " Why 
the affliction is visited upon the world- is better known to the Infinite 
Will than to any one among us. If riches ofttimes beget an indiffer- 
ence to truth and honesty in their accumulation, so does the lack of 
them augment the disregard of one and a paucity of the other. Yet, 
i'or all this, I aver that truth is as essential to the happiness of man as 
food and air are essential to the maintenance of his corporal being, 
and when you have stripped the body of that spiritual ornament called 
truth, which is reflected through the eyes, '■ the windows of the soul." 
with a light that outshines the glory of planets, you have nothing left 
but the sightless stem upon which hung the most beautiful and 
fragrant flower that ever unfurled its loveliness amid the starry splen- 
dors of Paradise. Above all things, then, the parents of to-day should 
guard the instruction imparted to their children. In the end, they 
will aggregate greater gain to them than earthly endowments 

Riches take the wings of the morning and fly away whither and 
thither they list, but true, pure knowledge, imparted for the soul's 
sake, prepares those who drink at the immortal Fountain of Truth to 
so live that their dying will be cause for the mourning of multitudes. 
For the safety of the church, for the dignity of our national character, 
and the eternal welfare of our souls, let us look to it that the lost art 
of truth-telling is revived, and money-getting is forgotten in the devel- 
opment of those finer impulses of soul that make life beautiful and 
death holy. 




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